GIFT   OF 
MICHAEL  REESE 


INTERNATIONAL  EDUCATION  SERIES 


THE    PHILOSOPHY 


OF 


E  DUG ATION 


BY 

JOHANN  KAEL  FEIEDEICH  ROSENKRANZ 

DOCTOB  OP  THEOLOGY  AND  PEOFE88OE  OP  PHILOSOPHY  AT  THE 
UNIVERSITY  OP  KOENIGSBEBG 


TBAN8LATED  FEOM  THE  GERMAN  BY 

ANNA  C.  BRACKET! 


SECOND  EDITION,  REVISED,  AND  ACCOMPANIED  WITH 
COMMENTARY  AND  ANALYSIS 


D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1,  3,  AND  5  BOND  STREET 

1890 


COPTEIGHT,   1886, 

Bir  D.  APPLETON  AOT  COMPANY. 


EDITOK'S    PKEFACE. 


THIS  work  was  translated  originally  for  The  Jour- 
nal of  Speculative  Philosophy,  appearing  in  volumes 
vi,  vii,  and  viii  of  that  periodical  (1872-73-' 74).  It 
was  intended  for  the  use  of  philosophical  students — 
who,  in  general,  admire  precise  technical  terms — and 
the  terse  German  of  the  original  was  rendered  by  equal- 
ly terse  English.  An  edition  of  two  thousand  copies 
was  reprinted  in  a  separate  volume.  Demands  for  the 
work  continuing  after  the  first  edition  was  exhausted,  it 
was  determined  to  publish  a  new  one.  For  this  purpose 
a  revision  has  been  made  of  the  translation  with  a  view 
to  better  adapt  it  to  the  needs  of  readers  not  skilled  in 
philosophy.  Where  it  has  been  tho'ught  necessary, 
phrases,  or  even  entire  sentences,  have  been  used  to 
convey  the  sense  of  a  single  word  of  the  original.  Typ- 
ographical errors  that  had  crept  into  the  first  edition, 
through  careless  proof-reading,  have  been  carefully  cor- 
rected. It  may  be  safety  claimed  that  no  obscurity  re- 
mains except  such  as  is  due  to  the  philosophic  depth  and 
generality  of  the  treatment.  In  this  respect  the  trans- 
lation is  now  more  intelligible  than  the  original.  In  ad- 
dition to  these  helps,  a  somewhat  elaborate  commentary 


VI  EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

on  the  whole  work  has  been  undertaken  by  the  editor, 
wko  has  also  prefixed  to  it  a  full  analysis  of  the  text 
and  commentary. 

It  is  believed  that  the  book  as  it  now  appears  will 
meet  a  want  that  is  widely  felt  for  a  thorough-going 
Philosophy  of  Education.  There  are  many  useful  and 
valuable  works  on  "  The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Teach- 
ing," but  no  work  that  entirely  satisfies  the  description 
of  a  genuine  Philosophy  of  Education.  To  earn  this 
title/  such  a  work  must  not  only  be  systematic,  but  it 
must  briDg  all  its  details  to  the  test  of  the  highest  prin- 
ciple of  philosophy.  This  principle  is  the  acknowl- 
edged principle  of  Christian  civilization,  and,  as  such, 
Kosenkranz  makes  it  the  foundation  of  his  theory  of 
education,  and  demonstrates  its  validity  by  an  appeal  to 
psychology  on  the  one  hand  and  to  the  history  of  civi- 
lization on  the  other. 

This  work,  on  its  appearance,  made  an  epoch  in  the 
treatment  of  educational  theory  in  Germany.  It  brought 
to  bear  on  this  subject  the  broadest  philosophy  of  mod- 
ern times,  and  furnished  a  standard  by  which  the  value 
of  the  ideas  severally  discussed  by  radicals  and  conserv- 
atives could  be  ascertained.  It  found  the  truth  lying 
partly  on  the  territory  of  the  established  order  and 
partly  on  the  territory  of  the  reformers — Ratich,  Co- 
menius,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  and  their  followers.  It 
showed  what  was  valid  in  the  idea  that  had  come  to  be 
established  in  the  current  system  of  education,  and  also 
exposed  the  weakness  that  had  drawn  the  attack  of  the 
reformers. 

Its  Author. — Johann  Karl  Friedrich  Rosenkranz 
was  born  at  Magdeburg,  April  23,  1805.  He  took  up 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE.  vii 

his  residence  in  Berlin  in  1824,  distinguishing  himself 
as  a  disciple,  first  of  Schleiermacher,  and  afterward  of 
Hegel.  In  1833  he  became  Professor  of  Philosophy  at 
Konigsberg,  and  occupied  for  forty-six  years,  until  his 
death  in  1879,  the  chair  held  for  twenty-four  years 
by  the  celebrated  Herbart,  and  for  thirty-four  years  by 
the  still  more  celebrated  Kant.  He  wrote  extensive 
works  on  philosophy  and  literature,  and  published  the 
present  work  in  1848  under  the  title  of  Paedagogik  als 
System. 

Points  of  Great  Value. — Special  attention  is  called 
to  the  deep  significance  of  the  principle  of  self-estrange- 
ment (Selbst-Entfremdung)  as  lying  at  the  foundation  of 
the  Philosophy  of  Education  (p.  27).  It  furnishes  a  key 
to  many  problems  discussed  by  the  educational  reformers 
from  Comenius  to  Herbert  Spencer.  Since  man's  true 
nature  is  not  found  in  him  already  realized  at  birth,  but 
has  to  be  developed  by  his  activity,  his  true  nature 
is  his  ideal,  which  he  may  actualize  by  education. 
Hence  the  deep  significance  of  this  process.  Man  must 
estrange  himself  from  his  first  or  animal  nature,  and 
assimilate  himself  to  his  second  or  ideal  nature,  by 
habit.  At  first  all  things  that  belong  to  culture  are 
strange  and  foreign  to  his  ways  of  living  and  thinking. 
Education  begins  when  he  puts  aside  what  is  familiar 
and  customary  with  him,  and  puts  on  the  new  and 
strange — that  is  to  say,  begins  his  "  self-estrangement." 
The  nature  of  such  important  matters  as  work  and  play 
(p.  28)  and  habit  (§§  29-34)  becomes  evident  from  this 
insight. 

The  distinction  of  corrective  and  retributive  punish- 
ment (§§  38-45)  is  of  great  value  practically  in  deciding 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

upon  the  kind  of  punishment  to  use  in  an  American 
school  where  pupils  have  a  precocious  sense  of  honor. 

The  part  of  this  work  devoted  to  educational  psy- 
chology (§§  82-102)  is  believed  to  possess  great  interest 
for  the  thoughtful  teacher,  as  tracing  the  outlines  of  the 
only  true  science  of  the  mind.  The  phases  most  worthy 
of  the  educator's  attention  are  certainly  those  that  relate 
to  the  development  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  powers ; 
it  is  their  development  rather  than  their  mere  existence 
that  the  practical  teacher  wishes  to  know  about.  This 
treatise  is  commended  to  the  notice  of  those  who  have 
hitherto  been  unable  to  find  a  satisfactory  psychologi- 
cal basis  for  their  educational  theories.  They  are  in- 
vited to  ponder  what  is  said  about  attention  (p.  73) ;  how 
the  lower  faculties  grow  into  higher  faculties,  and  how 
the  higher  faculties  re-enforce  the  lower  (pp.  75,  76) ; 
the  function  of  the  imagination  in  forming  general  types 
and  in  leading  to  abstract  ideas  (pp.  84-87). 

The  methods  of  treating  the  three  grades  of  capacity 
—the  blockhead,  the  mediocre  talent,  and  the  genius — 
are  especially  suggestive  to  the  teacher  (p.  109). 

The  subject  of  morality  is  treated  with  great  care, 

and  all  will  admire  what  is  said  on  the  inadmissibility 

of  vacations  in  moral  obedience  (p.  153),  as  well  as  what 

'is  said  (p.  147)  on  the  subject  of  urbanity  (politeness 

with  a  dash  of  irony),  as  the  flower  of  social  culture. 

Eosenkranz  very  properly  makes  religious  education 
the  last  and  highest  form  of  the  particular  elements  of 
education.  In  no  place  may  one  find  deeper  insights 
in  regard  to  the  proper  culture  in  religion  in  an  age 
abounding  in  unbelief  and  skeptical  influences.  His  dis- 
tinction of  three  stages  of  theoretical  culture  in  religion 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE.  ix 

— (a)  pious  feeling,  (J)  enjoyment  of  religious  symbols, 
(c)  interest  in  the  dogmas  as  such — to  which  he  adds 
the  three  practical  stages  of  (a)  self-consecration,  (5) 
performance  of  church  ceremonies,  (e)  the  attainment 
of  a  pious  trust  in  the  divine  government  of  the  world 
— these  distinctions  are  thorough-going.  What  he  says 
(p.  167)  on  the  dangers  of  unduly  hastening  the  child 
from  the  stages  of  religious  f eeling  to  religious  thought 
and  reflection,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  of  unduly  repress- 
ing religious  reflection  in  those  who  have  begun  to  ask 
questions  and  suggest  doubts,  is  very  instructive  to  re- 
ligious teachers,  whether  in  the  Sabbath-school  or  in  the 
family.  So,  too,  is  the  distinction  (p.  170)  drawn  be- 
tween the  provinces  of  morality  and  religion. 

The  entire  third  part  of  the  work  is  taken  up  with 
a  history  of  education,  based  on  the  philosophy  of  his- 
tory. It  is  rather  an  outline  of  the  history  of  human 
culture  than  a  special  history  of  schools  or  of  pedagog- 
ics. As  such,  it  is  highly  valuable,  not  only  for  the 
teacher  or  parent,  but  also  for  all  who  desire  to  see  in  a 
condensed  form  the  essential  outcome  of  human  history. 

In  this  brief  survey  of  the  philosophy  of  history  the 
reader  will  take  note,  first  of  all,  of  the  deepest  contrast 
— that  found  between  the  Oriental  and  Occidental  world- 
principles.  The  former  is  that  of  obedience  to  exter- 
nal authority,  the  latter  that  of  independence  in  all  its 
forms.  The  educator  will  here  find  practical  hints  on 
all  points  of  school  management.  In  China,  for  in- 
stance, he  may  see  exactly  what  kind  of  education  will 
make  conservative  citizens — mere  mechanical  memoriz- 
ing will  do  this  (p.  197).  He  may  see  how  too  much 
stress  on  education  for  one's  vocation  may  lead  to  castes 


x  EDITOR'S  PREFACE. 

like  those  of  India  (p.  200),  while  abstract  asceticism  in 
education  may  produce  something  akin  to  Lamaism. 
The  enlightened  reader  will  find  it  of  great  interest, 
in  these  days  of  the  study  of  Buddhism  ("  The  Light  of 
Asia  " — as  well  as  the  so-called  "  Esoteric  Buddhism  "), 
to  read  the  distinction  between  Buddhism  and  Christi- 
anity (pp.  205  and  256),  i.  e.,  the  distinction  between  the 
renunciation  of  selfishness  and  the  annihilation  of  self- 
hood itself. 

The  "active"  or  restless  peoples  of  "Western  Asia 
are  of  very  great  importance  in  the  history  of  culture — 
mediating  as  they  do  between  the  extremes  of  the  East 
and  the  West  (p.  212).  But,  above  all,  we  of  modern 
times  are  most  eager  to  study  the  three  kinds  of  indi- 
viduality which  Europe  has  furnished  us  (p.  218)  in  the 
Greek,  the  Eoman,  and  the  Teutonic  peoples.  For  these 
three  elements  of  individuality,  dominated  by  the  spir- 
itual idea  which  we  received  from  Judea — the  idea  of 
God  as  a  Divine  Person — are  the  elements  that  enter 
oar  civilization  and  compose  it.  "We  have  to  study 
these  four  strands  of  our  civilization  in  order  to  know 
ourselves.  What  is  said  about  the  religious  significance 
of  the  games  to  the  Greeks  (p.  220)  and  the  interpreta- 
tion of  Nature  by  the  unconscious  poetic  power  of  the 
Greek  mind  (p.  223),  as  well  as  the  characterization  of 
the  Eoman  principle  (p.  230),  will  be  recognized  as  a 
new  elaboration  of  Hegel's  insight  given  in  his  "  Phi- 
losophy of  History  " — a  work  which  alone  wtmld  give 
its  author  a  rank  among  the  foremost  of  the  great  think- 
ers of  the  world.  The  Eoman  idea  of  genus  humanum 
and  its  relation  to  the  ideal  of  the  Hebrew  prophets 
— the  Messiah,  Prince  of  Peace,  to  be  worshiped  of  all 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE.  xi 

nations — is  the  key  to  the  explanation  of  the  adoption 
of  Christianity  as  a  world-religion  (p.  249).  The  spirit 
of  modern  history  is  characterized  as  that  which  seeks 
to  realize  the  good  of  all  men  in  each  man  (p.  251). 

The  reader  will  find  a  mine  .of  important  ideas  by  fol- 
lowing out  the  lead  of  any  one  of  these  thoughts.  Es- 
pecial mention,  however,  should  be  given  to  the  appli- 
cation of  the  principle  of  self-estrangement  in  explain- 
ing the  study  of  the  classics  (pp.  277,  278),  and  to  the 
remarks  on  Rousseau  (p.  283). 

Omissions. — Occasional  references  to  contemporary 
educational  literature,  to  German  customs,  and  to  local 
or  temporary  interests  have  been  omitted,  and  the  fact 

of  omission  has  been  indicated  by ,  or,  if  it  is  of 

the  slightest  importance,  by  express  notice  inserted  in 
the  text.  Nearly  all  that  is  omitted  may  be  read  in  the 
first  edition  of  the  work. 

W.  T.  HARRIS. 
CONCORD,  MASS.,  August  18, 1886. 


SCHEME    OF    CLASSIFICATION 

OF  THE 
PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION. 

PART  I.— Education  in  its  General  Idea  : 

"  Possible  only  to  self-active  beings 19 

A   Its  Nature         Education  by  Divine  Providence,  by  experience,  or  by 

Relates  to  b^dy,  intellect,  and  will ;  must  be  systematic  ; 
conducted  in  schools 23 

B.  Its  Form.        J  Self.estrangement,  work  and  play 

§§  23-^45  I  •"•aoit; "" 

Authority,  obedience,  punishment 88 

n   Tfa-Mmifo        f  Subjective  limit  in  the  pupil's  capacity 47 

66  4f  w    *      1  Objective  limit  in  the  pupil's  wealth  and  leisure. 48 

[  Absolute  limit  in  the  pupil's  completion  of  school-work. . .  49 

PART  II.— Education  in  its  Special  Elements  : 

A    Phvsical          fDietetics 61 

g?S1C4          1  Gymnastics , 63 

M~'y<          I  Sexual  [omitted]. 

'    svpholn^iral  f  Intuitive— sense-perception 77 

epochs          I  Imaginative-fancy  and  memory 82 

f  Of  development  of  the  pupil 96 

Of  development  of  the  subject 97 

Logical  order.  (  Analytic 101 

Of  demonstration. .  -j  Synthetic 101 

iJ.  in         tual.    J  (Dialectical 102 

Pupil's  capacity. 106 

Pupil's  act  of  learning — mechanical 115 

dynamical 115 

Instruction.  assimilative 116 

living  example  . .  120 

Method  of  instruction— text-book 121 

oral 126 

'  Social  usages 143 

Mnril  Train        f  The  Virtues 151 

Moral  Tram-    I  Discipline_  154 

C.  Will-Train-  [Character 155 

ing.   §§  137-  •{  fa.  Feelings  ;  b.  Symbols  ;  c.  Dogmas 160- 

174.  T>«I;«.;^,,<  &•  Self-consecration  ;    b.  ceremonies  ;  c. 

4      reconciliation  with  one's  lot 1C5 

lucation.        a  Farnjiy  worship  ;  b.  union  with  church  ; 

[     c.  religious  insight 175 

PART  III.— Education  in  its  Particular  Systems  : 

Family— China 196 

Rassive.  Caste— India 200 

Monkish— Thibet 206 

A    TOatinnai  Military— Persia. ..  ., 207 

SwS^R        1  Active-  Priestly-Egypt 211 

§§  178-22G.  Industf ial-¥hoenicia 214 

1  ^Esthetic— Greece 218 

Individual.          Practical — Rome 229 

Abstract  individual— German  tribes 240 

B.  Theocratic.        Jews 249 

§  §  227-233 .  Monkish 253 

Chivalric 258 

C.  Humanita-  f  --_  BnpHfl,  j  Secular  life 263 

rian  or  For  355"  •]  Jesuitic 270 

Christian.  Pietistic 272 

8§  234-260.         Citizen.  '   To  achieve  an        j  Humanist 276 

ideal  of  culture,  j  Philanthropist 279 

For  free  citizenship 284 


ANALYSIS    OF    CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION.— §  1.  The  Science  of  Education,  a  mixed  sci- 
ence— presupposing  and  using  others — resembling  medicine.  What 
other  sciences  it  presupposes — its  place  in  a  complete  arrangement  of 
all  the  sciences  (p.  1).  §  2.  The  shallow  character  of  educational 
treatises  due  to  the  vagueness  of  the  definition  of  the  province  of 
education  (p.  9).  §  3.  Business  competition  in  education  increases 
charlatanism  (p.  10).  §  4.  The  science  of  education  belongs  in  the 
same  department  as  the  ethical  sciences.  It  begins  in  the  family 
(p.  10).  §  5.  The  science  of  education  contains  the  principles — the 
art  of  education  relates  to  the  devices  of  applying  them,  taking  into 
consideration  the  local  circumstances  (p.  12).  §  6.  The  local  circum- 
stances must  not  be  elevated  into  general  principles  (p.  13).  g  7.  The 
science  of  education  unfolds  the  general  idea  of  education,  and  shows 
the  divisions  and  the  historical  systems  that  have  prevailed  (p.  13). 
§  8.  The  general  idea  different  from  the  system  (p.  13).  §  9.  The 
divisions  into  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  education  (p.  14). 
^  10.  The  history  of  civilization  shows  the  various  ideas  of  education 
that  have  prevailed  (p.  14).  §11.  How  the  present  one  has  arisen 
(p.  16). 

The  FIRST  PART  considers  the  general  idea  of  education.  §  12. 
(1)  The  nature  of  education  in  general,  (2)  its  form,  (3)  its  limits  (p.  19). 

CHAPTER  I.— The  Nature  of  Education.  Education  is  possible  be- 
cause (§  13)  the  mind  is  self-active  (p.  19).  Hence  the  human  being 
is  (§  14)  the  only  fit  subject  of  education  (p.  20).  The  guidance  of 
the  race  by  Divine  Providence  (§  15)  may  be  called  education  (p.  21), 
or  (§  16)  the  molding  of  the  individual  by  the  influences  of  life 
(p.  21),  or,  in  the  narrowest  sense  (§  17),  the  influence  of  the  teacher 
on  a  pupil  (p.  22).  The  general  problem  of  education  (§  18)  includes 


xiv  ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS. 

development  of  intellect  and  moral  nature  (p.  23).  It  must  be  sys- 
tematic (§  19),  or  it  will  effect  but  little  (p.  24).  Necessity  of  dividing 
the  work  of  education  (§  20)  into  special  departments  (p.  24),  and 
(§  21)  hence  special  schools  (p.  25).  Possibilities  and  limits  of  educa- 
tion (§  22),  the  capacities  of  the  individual  (p.  25). 

CHAPTER  II.— The  Form  of  Education.  §  23.  The  mind  at  first 
undeveloped ;  second,  occupies  itself  on  strange  and  foreign  subjects ; 
third,  gets  familiar  with  them,  so  that  it  is  at  home  in  a  world  of  ob- 
jects (p.  26).  x§  24.  Self-estrangement  and  its  removal  belong  to  all 
culture  (p.  27).  §  25.  Definition  of  work  and  play  (p.  28) ;  necessity 
of  insisting  (§  26)  on  respect  for  work  (p.  29) ;  equal  necessity  of  play 
in  order  to  develop  the  pupil's  individuality.  §  27.  Recreation  found 
for  the  educated  man  in  change  of  work  (p.  30).  §  28.  Education 
seeks  to  transform  into  habit  whatever  ought  to  belong  to  one's  na- 
ture (p.  30).  §  29.  Indifference  of  habit — anything  good  or  bad  may 
become  a  habit  (p.  31).  Hence  education  should  cultivate  a  sensitive- 
ness for  what  is  ethical.  §  30.  Utility  a  relative  standard  of  judg- 
ing what  habits  are  to  be  cultivated  (p.  32).  §  31.  The  absolute  stand- 
ard is  the  moral  one  (p.  33).  §  32.  Active  habit  and  passive  habit 
defined  (p.  33).  §  33.  Habit  the  end  of  education,  but  the  power  of 
breaking  habits  to  be  acquired  (p.  34).  §  34.  Too  much  supervision 
of  the  pupil  versus  too  much  exposure  to  temptation  (p.  35).  §  35. 
Importance  of  studying  the  historic  growth  of  defects  of  character 
(p.  36).  §  36.  When  mere  authority  is  sufficient  (p.  37),  and  when 
explanations  and  arguments  should  be  addressed  to  the  pupil's  reason. 
§  37.  Scolding  (p.  38).  §  38.  Punishment  defined  (p.  38);  it  should 
be  given  for  particular  and  specified  acts,  and  not  for  general  dispo- 
sition to  evil  action.  §  39.  Corrective  versus  retributive  punishment 
(p.  39) ;  school  punishment  the  former.  §  40.  Punishment  for  cor- 
rection should  be  regulated  by  the  needs  of  the  offender  (p.  40), 
and  not  by  the  magnitude  of  the  offense,  as  in  the  case  of  re- 
tributive punishment.  §  41.  Corporal  punishment,  isolation,  pun- 
ishment based  on  a  sense  of  honor  (p.  40).  §  42.  Corporal  pun- 
ishment defined  (p.  41) ;  the  rod  the  best  means.  §  43.  Isolation,  its 
effect  explained  (p.  42).  §  44.  Punishment  through  the  sense  of 
honor — the  danger  in  its  use  (p.  43).  §  45.  Necessity  of  careful  dis' 
crimination  in  selecting  the  kind  of  punishment  to  use  and  in  decid- 
ing its  amount  (p.  44). 

CHAPTER  III.— The  Limits  of  Education.  §  46.  When  work  has 
become  a  habit,  and  the  pupil  has  learned  to  practice  the  right  meth- 


ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS.  XV 

ods  from  his  own  impulse  rather  than  on  account  of  external  author- 
ity, his  education  in  school  has  ended  (p.  45).  §  47.  The  subjective 
limit  of  education  (p.  47)  is  the  limit  found  in  the  pupil's  capacity. 
§  48.  The  objective  limit  depends  on  the  leisure  and  means  of  the  pupil 
(p.  48).  §  49.  The  absolute  limit  of  education  is  found  in  the  mastery 
of  the  means  and  methods,  and  the  formation  of  correct  habits  on 
the  part  of  the  pupil  (p.  49).  §  50.  Self-culture  succeeds  school  edu- 
cation (p.  50.) 

SECOND  PART.— The  Special  Elements  of  Education  (p.  55). 
INTRODUCTION.  §  51.  Education  defined  as  the  development  of  the 
inborn  theoretical  and  practical  reason  of  man  (p.  55).  Its  three 
stages  described.  §  52.  The  special  elements :  1.  Education  of  the 
body;  2.  Of  the  intellect;  3.  Of  the  will  (p.  56).  The  fivefold  sys- 
tem of  education — family,  school,  vocation,  citizenship,  and  the 
Church — defined  in  the  commentary  (p.  57). 

CHAPTER  I.— Physical  Education.  §  53.  The  essential  point  in 
hygiene  is  an  insight  into  the  relation  of  assimilation  to  elimination 
in  the  bodily  processes  (p.  59).  §  54.  Perpetual  process  in  the  organ- 
ism ;  balance  between  activity  and  rest  (p.  59).  §  55.  Fatigue  ex- 
plained (p.  60) ;  true  strength  arises  only  from  activity.  §  56.  Phys- 
ical education  divided  into  dietetics,  gymnastics,  and  sexual  educa- 
tion (p.  61). 

CHAPTER  II. — Dietetics.  §  57.  What  is  the  method  of  sustain- 
ing the  repair  of  the  organism  (p.  61)  I  §  58-§  63.  Summary  of  con- 
tents. §  64.  Cleanliness  explained  (p.  62). 

\/CHAPTER  III. — Gymnastics,  §  65,  is  the  art  of  normal  training  of 
the  muscular  system  (p.  63),  and  depends  on  the  relation  of  the  vol- 
untary to  the  involuntary  muscles.  §  66.  Gymnastics  corresponding 
to  the  national  military  drill  (p.  63) ;  Turner-halls ;  effect  of  invention 
of  fire-arms  on  gymnastics  (p.  64) ;  why  the  Greeks  paid  so  much  at- 
tention to  gymnastics  (p.  65).  §  67.  Gymnastics  should  aim  to  make 
the  body  an  energetic  and  docile  servant  of  the  will  (p.  65) ;  it  should 
not  aim  at  making  acrobats.  §  68.  Classification  of  gymnastic  exer- 
cises (p.  66).  §  69.  The  foot-movements  (p.  66).  §  70.  The  arm- 
movements  (p.  66).  §  71.  The  whole-body  movements  (p.  67). 

^CHAPTER  IV.— Intellectual  Education.  §  80.  Didactics,  or  the 
science  of  the  art  of  teaching  presupposes  physical  education,  but 
chiefly  deals  with  psychology  and  logic  (p.  69).  §  81.  The  psycholog- 
ical presupposition.  There  must  be  a  brief  discussion  of  the  outlines 
of  psychology  in  didactics  (p.  69).  §  82.  Attention  the  most  impor- 


xvi  ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS. 

tant  subject  in  educational  psychology.  Mind  is  essential  self -activity 
(p.  70).  Deduction  of  the  powers  or  faculties  of  the  mind  from  self- 
activity  (p.  71) ;  sense-perception,  analysis,  abstraction,  perception  of 
necessary  relation,  reflection,  reason,  etc.  (p.  72).  §  83.  Education  of 
attention  (p.  72).  Attention  is  the  combination  of  intellect  and  will. 
Aristotle's  distinction  between  first  and  second  substances  (p.  73). 
Avicenna's  first  and  second  intentions  of  the  mind.  Fichte's  psychol- 
ogy- §  84.  The  mind  does  not  consist  of  different  faculties,  but  of 
different  activities  of  the  same  power  (p.  73) ;  sense-perception,  repre- 
sentation, thinking;  intuitive,  imaginative,  and  logical  epochs  of 
mind;  fairy  tales  (p.  74);  dialectical  development  of  one  stage  of 
mind  into  another  (p.  75),  and  the  reaction  of  higher  activities  on 
lower  ones  so  as  to  strengthen  the  power  of  the  lower,  illustrated  by 
examples — Agassiz  and  Asa  Gray — how  science  re-enforces  the  power 
of  sense-reception  (p.  76). 

CHAPTER  V. — §  85.  The  intuitive  epoch.  Sense-perception,  how 
educated  by  isolation  of  the  object,  by  discovery  of  relations  be- 
tween objects,  by  connecting  objects  in  one  system  (p.  77).  §  86. 
Pictorial  representation,  its  function  (p.  78) — type  or  general  form 
of  an  object  versus  individual  specimen.  §  87.  Picture-books,  their 
history — Comenius's  picture-book  (p.  78).  §  88.  Collections  and  cabi- 
nets ;  drawings ;  children  should  not  attempt  works  of  art  (p.  79) ; 
the  outlines  which  serve  to  characterize  an  object  (p.  80).  §  89.  Ex- 
planations essential  to  instruction  by  means  of  pictures  (p.  80).  §  90. 
Educate  the  ear  as  well  as  the  eye — music — careful  articulation  and 
quality  of  voice  in  reading — Plato  and  Aristotle  on  the  importance 
of  music ;  piano-playing ;  German  musical  dramas — symphonies  and 
sonatas  (p.  81). 

CHAPTER  VI.— The  Imaginative  Epoch.  §  91.  The  formation  of 
mental  images  and  their  verification ;  creative  imagination ;  memory 
(p.  82).  §  92.  Comparison  of  mental  image  with  the  sense-perception 
of  the  object  in  order  to  verify  and  correct  it  (p.  82.)  §  93.  Eman- 
cipation from  particular  objects  through  generalization — ability  to 
see  the  type  of  all  objects  of  a  given  species — also  the  ability  to  recog- 
nize a  particular  object  as  belonging  to  a  given  species  (p.  83).  §  94. 
Art  and  literature  as  cultivation  of  imagination — furnishing  the 
images  which  every  educated  person  is  obliged  to  know,  because  the 
mind  of  the  race  does  most  of  its  thinking  by  means  of  the  images 
derived  from  literature  and  art,  and  communicates  its  thoughts  like- 
wise by  their  aid  (p.  84).  rfomer  and  the  Old  Testament  as  furnishing 


ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS.  xvii 

the  typical  specimens  of  human  nature  which  all  must  know  (p.  85). 
§  95.  Fairy  stories  of  a  nation  furnishing  the  images  with  which 
children  first  learn  to  think  (p.  85) ;  list  of  the  books  which  all  youth 
should  read  at  some  time — what  the  nursery-tale  gives  the  child  (p. 
86).  §  96.  Genuine  fairy-tales  immeasurably  superior  to  those  made 
to  order,  because  they  contain-  an  unconscious  reproduction  of  univer- 
sal types,  purified,  and  made  universal' by  passing  through  the  minds 
of  innumerable  individuals  in  the  course  of  oral  transmission  from 
one  century  to  the  next  (p.  86).  §  97.  In  later  youth  the  pupil  should 
approach  more  closely  the  study  of  noteworthy  historic  characters, 
and  be  moved  by  the  stories  of  famous  men  (p.  87) ;  he  should  at- 
tempt to  understand  the  world,  and  grapple  with  its  problems  rather 
than  remain  content  with  passively  viewing  its  pictures  (p.  88) ;  in 
what  sense  tragedy  purifies  the  mind  from  passions  (p.  89) ;  necessity 
of  gallant  attacks  upon  works  of  great  difficulty.  §  98.  How  general 
conceptions  are  derived  from  works  of  the  imagination  (p.  90) ;  mem- 
ory and  its  relation  to  imagination — mnemonic  helps  (p.  91) ;  distinc- 
tion between  recollection  of  particular  objects  and  memory  by  means 
of  general  types,  such  memory  as  the  scientific  mind  possesses ;  sym- 
bolic stage  of  culture  versus  conventional  stage  (p.  92) ;  how  recollec- 
tion may  be  strengthened  (p.  93).  §  99.  Repetition  and  writing  down 
as  a  means  of  memorizing  (p.  93). 

CHAPTER  VII. — The  Logical  Epoch.  §  100.  General  concepts  or 
schemata  (p.  94) ;  logical  distinctions  of  particular,  individual,  and 
universal  (p.  95).  §  101.  The  cultivation  of  the  sense  of  truthful- 
ness ;  illusion  and  deception  (p.  95).  §  102.  Logical  forms,  their  use 
in  education  (p.  96). 

CHAPTER  VIII.— Method.  §  103.  Method  the  order  in  which  a 
study  or  topic  develops  in  the  mind ;  the  three  elements  of  instruc- 
tion (p.  96).  §  104.  The  order  of  arrangement  that  belongs  to  the 
nature  of  the  subject  (p.  97).  §  105.  The  order  in  which  the  pupil 
can  best  learn  a  subject,  depending  upon  his  stage  of  intellect,  whether 
in  the  stage  of  sense-perception  or  imagination  or  abstract  thought 
(p.  98) ;  progress  from  the  known  to  the  unknown ;  function  of  illus- 
tration; symbolizing  (p.  99);  discovery  of  relations — finding  the 
definition  or  complete  description  of  a  subject ;  necessary  conditions 
of  being  (p.  100) ;  the  dialectic  method  which  investigates  the  neces- 
sary presuppositions  (p.  101).  §  106.  Method  of  demonstration — 
analytic,  synthetic,  and  dialectic  proofs — invention  and  construction, 
or  heuristic  and  architectonic  methods  (p.  101) ;  the  genetic  or  dia- 


XVlii  ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS. 

lectic  method  (p.  102) ;  ascent  from  particular  fact  or  event  to  the 
Cause  of  All  by  the  dialectic  method  (p.  103) ;  the  notion  or  idea— 
the  judgment  as  distinction  of  universal  and  particular — the  syllo- 
gism as  distinguishing  and  uniting  the  universal,  particular,  and  in- 
dividual (p.  104).  §  107.  The  adaptation  of  the  subject  taught  to  the 
actual  capacity  and  need  of  the  pupil  by  the  teacher  (p.  104) ;  the 
teacher  must  know  the  individual  case,  and  use  the  necessary  means 
to  make  the  subject  understood  (p.  105). 

CHAPTER  IX.— Instruction.  §  108.  The  pupil  lacks  what  the 
teacher  possesses  and  can  give  him  by  instruction  (p.  106).  §  109. 
Apprentice  and  master ;  true  basis  of  authority  found  only  hi  supe- 
rior knowledge  and  ability  (p.  106).  §  110.  Apprenticeship,  journey- 
manship,  mastership  (p.  107).  §  111.  Three  degrees  of  capacity  in 
the  pupil — dullness,  mediocrity,  talent  and  genius  (p.  107) ;  medioc- 
rity the  general  rule  among  pupils — dunces  and  geniuses  the  excep- 
tions (p.  108) ;  genius  has  unbounded  inclination  and  capacity,  and 
is  clear  as  to  the  methods  which  it  should  use — talent  lacks  insight 
into  the  best  methods  (p.  109).  §  112.  Difficulty  of  educating  talenfc 
and  genius  wisely  on  account  of  precocity,  which  must  be  repressed 
(p.  109) ;  yanity,  affectation,  and  self -consciousness  to  be  repressed 
(p.  110).  §  118.  The  traditional  learning  which  controls  a  sphere 
of  knowledge  (p.  110) ;  the  dilettant  or  amateur  neglects  the  neces- 
sary preparation,  but  hastens  to  produce  without  it  (p.  Ill);  self- 
taught  men  and  their  obstacles ;  genius  can  teach  itself  (p.  112);  the 
professionally  educated ;  the  role  of  reformer.  §  114.  Correspond- 
ence between  apprenticeship  and  professional  education,  etc.  (p.  113). 

CHAPTER  X.— The  Act  of  Learning.  §  115.  The  first  object  of 
the  teacher  to  arouse  the  pupil  to  self -activity  (p.  113);  difference  be- 
tween didactic  and  artistic  expositions  (p.  114).  §116.  Three  ele- 
ments in  learning  (p.  114).  §  117.  The  mechanical  element  defined 
— punctuality,  regularity,  and  system  (p.  115).  §  118.  Dynamical 
element  or  self-activity  of  the  pupil  (p.  115).  §  119.  How  to  develop 
the  power  of  the  pupil  to  assimilate  or  digest  knowledge  by  his  own 
activity  through  attention  and  repetition  (p.  116).  §  120.  Indus- 
try defined;  laziness,  over-haste,  and  over-exertion  (p.  117).  §  121. 
Seeming  laziness  and  seeming  industry  (p.  118). 

CHAPTER  XI.— The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching.  §  122. 
Three  methods  of  instruction  (p.  120).  §  123.  The  lessons  of  experi- 
ence ;  what  is  learned  in  the  period  of  infancy  (p.  120) ;  in  learning 
one's  trade  or  vocation  ;  in  partaking  of  citizenship  ;  in  the  church 


ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS.  x}x 

(p.  121).  §124.  What  is  learned  through  books;  convenience  of 
such  learning — necessity  of  translating  into  elements  of  one's  own 
experience  (p.  121).  §  125.  Text-books  should  give  us  the  principal 
results  in  any  department,  omitting  no  essential  elements  (122) ;  good 
and  bad  text-books  described  (p.  123).  §  126.  If  intended  for  private 
study  the  book  should  go  more  into  details  (p.  124).  §  127.  Oral  in- 
struction the  most  powerful  agent  of  education  (p.  124) ;  the  latest 
discoveries,  the  pronunciation  of  foreign  languages,  and  similar  mat- 
ters, require  oral  instruction  (p.  125).  §  128.  Oral  and  text-book  in- 
struction contrasted  (p.  125).  §  129.  Acroamatic  or  lecture  system 
and  erotematic  or  catechetical  method  described  and  criticised  (p. 
126) ;  system  of  Bell  and  Lancaster ;  Diesterweg's  opinion  of  the  lect- 
ure system  in  German  universities  (p.  127).  §  130.  Technical  and 
popular  lectures  contrasted  (p.  128) ;  Kant's  opinion  of  popular  lect- 
ures, g  131.  The  order  of  educational  institutions  (p.  129);  general 
education  to  be  given  to  all  citizens  in  the  elementary  schools ;  Real- 
schule,  Gymnasium,  and  university  (p.  130);  self-educated  men 
compared  with  university  educated  men  (p.  131) ;  academies  of  art ; 
natural  science  and  modern  languages  versus  Latin  and  Greek  (p. 
132).  §  132.  Rules  and  regulations  of  the  school ;  programme  of 
work  (p.  133);  struggle  between  the  Gymnasia  and  the  industrial 
interests  of  the  community  (p.  134).  §  133.  The  teachers  should 
manage  the  programme,  course  of  study,  methods  of  instruction  (p. 
135) ;  in  other  matters  it  is  governed  by  the  civil  power  (p.  135) ; 
historical  origin  of  the  school  through  the  Church  (p.  136).  §  134. 
State  and  church  contrasted ;  their  relation  to  the  school  (p.  137) ; 
disposition  contrasted  with  overt  act;  freedom  from  authority  in 
matters  of  science  (p.  138).  §  135.  Limitations  of  church  and  state 
in  their  control  over  the  school  (139).  §  136.  School  inspection 
ought  to  extend  over  the  entire  system  so  as  to  properly  co-ordinate 
the  several  departments  and  give  unity  to  the  work  (p.  140). 

A  CHAPTER  XII.— Education  of  the  Will.  §  137.  The  third  spe- 
cial element  of  education  is  will-training  (p.  141).  §  138.  The  will- 
training  consists  in  discipline,  or  the  voluntary  putting  on  of  the 
forms  of  action  prescribed  by  civilization,  in  preference  to  following 
one's  natural  impulses ;  morality  and  religion  furnish  the  highest 
forms  to  which  the  natural  will  must  b§  subjected  (p.  142) ;  polite- 
ness or  conformity  to  the  social  code  the  least  essential  form  (p.  143). 

/\  CHAPTER  XIII.-— Social  Culture.  §  139.  The  beginning  of  educa- 
tion of  the  will  is  the  training  in  obedience  to  social  manners  and 


XX  ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS. 

customs — i.  e.,  training  in  behavior  toward  others  (p.  143).  §  140. 
The  family  training  for  the  will  begins  with  requiring  obedience  to 
elders  (p.  144).  The  accident  of  birth  determines  this  relation  of  su- 
periority and  inferiority.  §  141.  After  the  family  comes  the  education 
of  civil  society,  which  insists  on  obedience  to  a  social  code  of  eti- 
quette ;  politeness  celebrates  the  form  of  devotion  to  the  welfare  of 
others  (p.  146).  §  143.  Dangers  of  the  mania  for  attracting  atten- 
tion of  others,  or  of  too  much  restraint  and  slavish  dependence  on 
the  social  code  (p.  147).  §  143.  Urbanity  is  the  mastery  of  the  social 
code  rather  than  slavish  subordination  to  it.  It  obeys  forms,  but 
with  a  sort  of  irony  (p.  147).  §  144.  The  necessity  of  training  one 
to  prudent  wariness  against  the  dangers  that  arise  from  human  self- 
ishness in  the  world  (p.  149). 

}  CHAPTER  XIV.— Moral  Culture.  §  145.  Morality  is  the  true  es- 
sence of  social  culture.  Its  categories  are  duty,  virtue,  and  conscience 
(p.  150).  §  146.  Unconditional  obedience  to  duty  is  the  first  demand 
of  moral  education ;  not  happiness,  but  duty,  must  be  the  guide  of 
the  will  (p.  151).  §  147.  The  training  of  the  will  to  obey  duty  re- 
sults in  virtue ;  three  things  to  be  noticed — dialectic  of  virtues,  moral 
discipline,  character  (p.  151).  §  148.  Dialectic  interdependence  of 
virtues  (p.  151) ;  the  doctrine  of  the  mean  (p.  152) ;  no  unessential 
virtues ;  no  vacations  to  be  permitted  in  moral  obedience  (p.  153) ; 
missteps  undo  the  whole  work  (p.  154).  §  149.  Self-government  to 
be  attained  by  disciplining  the  will  to  renounce  some  things  that  are 
permitted  it  (p.  154).  §  150.  The  development  of  character  is  the 
final  result  of  discipline  of  the  will  in  self-control  (p.  155) ;  the  fac- 
tors that  form  it  are  temperament,  external  events,  the  energy  of  the 
will.  §  151.  Conscience  is  the  consciousness  of  one's  ideal  self  (p. 
156)  in  contrast  to  the  real  self. 

/I  CHAPTER  XV.  —  Religious  Culture.  §  152.  Conscience  is  the 
bridge  that  leads  over  from  morality  to  religion ;  the  difference  be- 
tween the  atheistic  moralist  and  the  religious  moralist  (p.  157) ;  the 
unconscious  irony  of  atheism  (p.  158).  §  153.  The  change  of  heart 
(p.  159).  §  154.  Three  things  in  religious  education — the  theory  or 
view  of  the  world  taught  in  religion,  the  discipline  in  the  practice 
of  religious  observances,  the  union  with  a  particular  church  (p. 
160). 

CHAPTER  XVI.— The  Theoretical  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 
8  155.  Three  stages  of  religion — feeling,  religious  images  and  sym- 
bols, religious  insight  into  dogmas  (p.  160).  §  156.  Feeling  or  emo- 


ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS.  xxi 

tion  the  basis  of  religion ;  but,  if  only  a  feeling,  then  only  fetichism 
is  possible ;  Schleiermacher's  opinion  (p.  161).  §  157.  Above  mere 
emotion  is  the  religious  act  which  forms  mental  images  of  the  Divine 
Being  and  his  relation  to  man  (p.  162).  §  158.  Mysticism  an  ar- 
rested development  of  the  mind  on  this  stage  of  religious  feeling 
(p.  162).  §  159.  Religious  imagination  not  an  idle  exercise  of  the 
fancy,  but  the  fancy  under  the  control  of  unconscious  reason  (p.  163). 
§  160.  By  reflection  on  the  meaning  and  significance  of  the  religious 
images,  there  arises  a  clear  insight  into  the  essential  nature  of  the 
divine  (p.  163).  §  161.  If  the  mind  is  arrested  in  its  development  at 
this  stage  of  religious  imagination,  polytheism  and  idolatry  arise ; 
education  must  not  for  this  reason  reject  the  religious  imagination 
altogether  (p.  164).  §  162.  Religious  thought,  as  a  higher  stage  than 
religious  imagination,  has  three  stages — abstract,  reflective,  specula- 
tive (p.  165).  §  163.  The  abstract  stage,  which  sets  up  dogmas  with- 
out any  attempt  to  show  their  connection  or  their  necessity  in  reason, 
is  forced  to  give  way  before  reflection,  which,  unless  guided  properly, 
will  discover  difficulties  and  become  skeptical  (p.  167);  education 
must  take  care  not  to  attempt  to  develop  the  reflective  stage  prema- 
turely ;  it  should,  however,  be  careful  to  direct  the  inquiries  of  those 
already  advanced  to  the  stage  of  reflection,  so  that  they  may  attain 
the  speculative  insight  into  the  necessity  of  religious  truth.  §  164. 
The  final  stage  of  religious  instruction  in  doctrinal  matters  therefore 
endeavors  to  give  philosophical  insight  (p.  168). 

CHAPTER  XVII. — The  Practical  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 
§  165.  The  three  phases  of  religious  discipline — consecration  of  self, 
performance  of  religious  ceremonies,  religious  reconciliation  with 
one's  lot  (p.  169).  §  166.  Distinction  between  the  moral  and  the  re- 
ligious standpoints— the  latter  looks  upon  duty  as  the  action  of  the 
Divine  Will,  and  thus  comes  into  personal  relation  to  God  (p.  169) ; 
distinction  of  sin,  crime,  and  evil  as  the  categories  of  religion,  civil 
authority,  and  morality  (p.  170).  §  167.  Consecration  of  self,  the  re- 
nunciation of  selfish  egotism ;  observance  of  religious  ceremonies  is 
intended  to  make  consecration  easy,  because  it  gives  the  support  of 
the  whole  church  to  each  member  of  it  (p.  170) ;  but  there  is  danger 
sometimes  of  confounding  ceremonies  with  religion  itself  (p.  171). 
§  168.  Religious  peace  and  reconciliation  may  come  through  conse- 
cration of  self,  or  through  that  and  the  practice  of  religious  cere- 
monial (p.  171) ;  but  often  it  is  only  the  rough  discipline  of  life 
which  brings  home  to  the  mind  the  truth  of  religion  (p.  172) ;  recon- 


xxii  ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS. 

ciliation  must  not  be  mere  stoicism  or  fanatical  asceticism,  but  cheer- 
ful activity  in  one's  vocation  (p.  173) ;  discontent  with  one's  lot ;  the 
blase  mood  (p,  174). 

CHAPTER  XVI II.— The  Absolute  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 
§  169.  Three  stages — feeling  and  consecration,  symbolism  and  cere- 
monial, religious  insight  and  reconciliation  (p.  175).  §  170.  The  first 
stage  of  religion  a  mysterious  impulse  toward  the  infinite  (p.  176). 
§  171.  The  family  instructs  the  child  in  its  own  chosen  form  of  wor- 
ship (p.  176).  §  172.  Reflection  on  the  dogmas  of  revealed  religion 
leads  to  insight  into  their  rational  basis  (p.  177).  §  173.  The  three 
stages  are  all  essential  to  complete  religious  experience  (p.  178).  § 
174.  Religious  education  is  the  last  and  highest  form  of  the  particu- 
lar elements  of  education  (p.  179). 

THIRD  PART.— Particular  Systems  of  Education.  INTRODUC- 
TION.— Historical  systems  of  education.  §  175.  The  number  of  peda- 
gogical principles  is  limited  to  a  few  ideas,  and  hence  there  are  only 
a  limited  number  of  historic  systems  (p.  183) ;  the  deduction  of  the 
fundamental  ideas  and  the  three  general  forms  of  civilization  and 
their  corresponding  systems  of  education  (p.  185).  §  176.  Civiliza- 
tion conditions  all  education  and  furnishes  its  object  and  aim ;  an 
outline  of  the  three  great  phases  of  civilization  (p.  185) — the  Oriental 
civilizations,  together  with  the  Greek  and  Roman,  form  the  first ; 
the  Jewish,  the  second;  Christian  civilization,  the  third  (p.  187). 
§  177.  The  national,  the  theocratic,  the  humanitarian  systems  of 
education  based  on  the  three  types  of  civilization  (p.  188). 

CHAPTER  I. — The  System  of  National  Education.  §  178.  The 
family  is  the  natural  germ  out  of  which  grow  the  other  institutions, 
and  it  furnishes  the  basis  of  national  education  (p.  190) ;  the  mean- 
ing of  pietas  ;  Des  Coulanges  and  ancestor-worship ;  Hegel's  defini- 
tion of  Oeist  (p.  191).  §179.  National  education  includes  three 
systems — passive,  active,  individual  (p.  191).  §  180.  The  passive  a  sub- 
jection, first,  to  the  family  authority  (China) ;  second,  to  the  caste  (In- 
dia) ;  third,  to  the  cloister  (Thibet)  (p.  192).  §  181.  The  active  system 
is  directed  against  the  restraint  of  Nature ;  first,  the  Persian,  whose  aim 
is  conquest ;  second,  the  Egyptian,  whose  aim  is  preparation  for  death 
and  the  immortal  life ;  third,  the  Phoenician  and  the  conquest  of  the 
ocean  (p.  192).  §  182.  The  individual  system  with  the  Greek  aims  at 
freedom  and  its  expression  in  the  work  of  art.  §  183.  The  aesthetic 
(Greek)  aim  is  followed  by  the  practical  (Roman)  aim,  which  seeks 
individuality  in  its  essential  form  of  rights  under  equal  laws ;  the 


ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS.  xxiii 

German  tribes  possessed  a  morbid  love  of  individuality  for  its  own 
sake  (p.  194). 

CHAPTER  II.  First  Group — the  System  of  Passive  Education. 
§  184.  The  rational  basis  of  passive  education,  the  desire  to  free  man 
from  the  thralldom  of  Nature  by  mutual  social  help ;  its  defect  lies  in 
the  fact  that  it  produces  a  new  thralldom  to  social  order,  which,  how- 
ever, is  better  than  the  former  thralldom  to  Nature  (p.  196).  §  185. 
Family  education,  in  its  purest  form  in  China  (p.  196).  §  186.  The 
family  feeling  (pietas)  demanding  obedience  to  paternal  authority 
and  the  protection  and  guidance  of  the  younger  by  the  elder  (p.  197). 
§  187.  Family  education  consists  in  learning  the  network  of  usages  or 
etiquette ;  punishment  corrective  only ;  endless  number  of  maxims  of 
obedience ;  Hegel's  description  of  the  Chinese  (p.  198) ;  the  Chinese 
alphabet ;  Chinese  schools  and  fourfold  system  of  examinations ;  effect 
of  exclusive  cultivation  of  the  memory  in  producing  a  conservative 
people  (p.  199).  §  188.  Chinese  reading  and  writing  (p.  200).  §  189. 
Caste  education  in  India ;  the  station  determined  by  birth  and  not  by 
education  (p.  200).  §  190.  Education  consists  in  learning  the  cere- 
monies due  from  one  caste  to  the  others  (p.  201) ;  examples  of  this 
(p.  202).  §  191.  Literature  of  India ;  fables  and  proverbs ;  the  Hito- 
padesa  (p.  202).  §  192.  Monkish  education  in  Thibet ;  its  reaction 
against  Nature,  against  the  family,  and  against  civil  society  and  in- 
dustry (p.  203).  §  193.  Division  into  monks  and  laity  (p.  204).  §  194. 
The  Chinese  Buddhism  and  Indian  hermit  system  form  a  natural 
transition  to  the  cloister  system  of  Thibet  (p.  204) ;  the  defect  of 
quietism ;  contrast  of  Lamaism  and  Christian  monasticism ;  nirvana  ; 
selfishness  versus  selfhood ;  the  Sankhya  doctrine  of  India  the  root 
of  Buddhist  theology  (p.  205). 

CHAPTER  III. — Second  Group — the  System  of  Active  Education. 
§  195.  Active  education  subordinates  family,  caste,  and  cloister  to  an 
objective  purpose  of  conquest — military  as  in  Persia,  future  life  as 
in  Egypt,  industrial  as  in  Phoenicia  (p.  206).  §  196.  Military  educa- 
tion for  the  purpose  of  establishing  an  absolute,  unlimited  empire 
by  subjugation  of  all  neighboring  nations ;  history  of  Persia  (p.  207), 
the  absolute  limit  of  Persian  conquest  found  in  Grecian  individuality 
(p.  208).  §  197,  Persian  education  in  truth-speaking,  in  riding  horse- 
back, and  in  the  use  of  the  bow  and  arrow ;  its  contrast  with  education 
in  India  and  Thibet  (p.  208) ;  explanation  of  truth-speaking  as  indi- 
cating a  sense  of  the  reality  of  finite  things — the  Hindoo  believed 
finite  things  to  be  a  dream-product;  the  uses  of  social  order,  its 
3 


xxiv  ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS. 

sacredness  to  the  Chinese  and  Hindoos ;  its  better  appreciation  by 
the  Persians  and  active  peoples  (p.  209).  §  198.  Herbeds,  Mobeds, 
Destur-mobeds  among  the  Magi;  the  Persian  deities  Ormuzd  and 
Ahriman  at  war  with  each  other  (p.  210).  §  199.  Priestly  education 
of  Egypt  for  the  sake  of  preparing  man  in  this  life  for  the  next ;  how 
the  Persian  meets  death ;  in  Egypt  the  death-court  the  supreme  tri- 
bunal (p.  211) ;  Osiris  and  Amenti  (p.  212).  §  200.  School  studies ;  aim 
in  life ;  Chinese,  Hindoo,  Buddhist,  Persian,  and  Egyptian  contrasted 
(p.  212) ;  Egyptian  science ;  engineering ;  surveying,  why  so  impor- 
tant ;  hieroglyphics ;  method  of  teaching  arithmetic ;  cost  of  rearing 
a  child  up  to  manhood  only  four  dollars  (p.  213).  §  201.  Industrial 
education  of  Phoenicia  resembles  in  its  aim  that  of  the  other  active 
(i.  e.,  restless)  peoples ;  manufacture  of  articles  of  luxury ;  commerce ; 
Phoenician  quarter  in  foreign  cities  ;  education  in  deceit,  and  in  in- 
difference toward  family  and  native  land ;  love  of  gain ;  extent  of  Phoe- 
nician commerce  and  manufactures ;  the  alphabet  (p.  214).  §  202. 
Branches  of  study ;  sacrifice  of  first-born  to  Moloch  produced  filial 
indifference  necessary  to  a  nation  of  sailors  (p.  215). 

CHAPTER  IV.— Third  Group— the  System  of  Individual  Education. 
§  203.  Individuality  contains  both  passivity  and  activity ;  it  desires 
to  be  rather  than  to  have  ;  its  three  principles — beauty  (Greek),  legal 
rights  (Roman),  daemonic  love  of  individuality  (German  tribes)  (p. 
216) ;  characterization  of  these  principles  (p.  217) ;  Norse  sea-kings, 
knights-errant,  "  cow-boys "  (p.  218).  §  204.  Esthetic  education. 
Gracefulness,  the  expression  of  freedom  in  the  control  of  the  limbs, 
constitutes  the  essence  of  Greek  beauty  (p.  218).  §  205.  At  first 
athletic  games  formed  the  chief  education  in  Greece ;  then  politics 
and  poetry  (p.  218) ;  an  account  of  the  games ;  cultivation  of  the 
sense  of  the  beautiful  in  the  human  form ;  followed  by  a  race  of 
artists  who  fixed  in  stone  the  ideal  types  of  gracefulness  (p.  220). 
§  206.  Composite  races  of  Greece ;  Dorians,  -SColians,  lonians ;  gym- 
nastics, music,  poetry ;  Athens  the  supreme  center  of  Greek  indi- 
viduality (p.  221).  §  207.  Education  in  the  heroic  age ;  epic  histo- 
ries and  adventures  (p.  221) ;  Hercules,  Melkarth,  Izdubar,  Mar-duk, 
Babel  (p.  222).  §  208.  Gymnastics,  music,  grammatics  (p.  222). 
§  209.  Objects  aimed  at  in  gymnastics  (p.  222).  §  210.  Music  ex- 
pressed to  the  ear  what  gracefulness  did  to  the  eye — a  sense  of 
rhythm  and  self-control  (p.  222) ;  rhythm  explained ;  the  nine  muses ; 
Hegel's  description  of  the  Greek  spirit ;  Qreek  faculty  of  interpret- 
ing the  sounds  and  movements  in  Nature  (p.  223).  §  211  The  citb- 


ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS.  XXV 

ern;  the  flute  at  Thebes  (p.  223);  strange  theory  of  Aristotle  in 
regard  to  the  immoral  effect  of  flute-music  (p.  224).  §  212.  Gram- 
mar or  literary  culture;  Iliad,  Odyssey,  ^Esop,  and  tragic  poets 
(p.  224).  §  213.  The  Peloponnesian  war  destroyed  the  Greek 
worship  of  the  beautiful  (p.  224);  sophists;  Diogenes  the  Cynic; 
Socrates  and  his  teaching  of  conscious  investigation  of  motives ;  the 
oracle  or  external  omen  versus  conscience  (p.  225).  §  214.  Socrates' 
doctrine  that  virtue  can  be  taught ;  Plato's  Dorianism ;  Aristotle's 
modern  views  (p.  226).  §  215.  Dissolution  of  the  Greek  principle 
in  Stoicism  and  Epicureanism  (p.  227).  §  216.  Educational  signifi- 
cance of  Stoicism  and  Epicureanism  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
they  both  depend  on  a  careful  discipline  of  the  intellect  and  will, 
whereas  early  Greek  life  was  spontaneous — not  labor,  but  play  (p. 
228) ;  Marcus  Aurelius  (p.  229). 

CHAPTER  V. — Practical  Education.  §  217.  The  Roman  makes 
usefulness  rather  than  beauty  his  principle,  and  the  ideal  of  the  use- 
ful is  to  him  the  political  power  of  the  State  which  makes  possible  to 
the  citizen  all  the  good  things — life  itself,  and  all  the  enjoyments  of 
life  (p.  229) ;  discussion  of  the  peculiarity  of  the  Roman  character ; 
its  history ;  outlaws  living  on  a  border-land  ;  compact ;  the  political 
bond  the  highest  religion ;  private  right  of  property  and  the  net- 
work oi,  laws  that  protect  it ;  essential  dualism  in  the  Roman  con- 
sciousness (p.  230).  §  218.  -^Esthetic  culture,  which  was  religion  to 
the  Greeks,  was  to  the  Romans  mere  amusement ;  three  epochs  in 
Roman  education  (p.  231).  §  219.  The  first  epoch,  juristic  and  mili- 
tary (p.  231) ;  laws  of  the  twelve  tables  ;  fugitives  to  the  Roman  hills ; 
Latin  words  expressing  self-control  and  severe  self-criticism  (p.  232) ; 
ancestor- worship  in  Rome ;  Christianity  adapted  to  solve  the  contra- 
diction of  the  Roman  mind  (p.  233).  §  220.  Education  of  woman  in 
Rome  contrasted  with  that  in  Greece  (p.  233).  §  221.  Education  by 
the  mother ;  by  a  jurist ;  in  the  army ;  stress  laid  on  implicit  obedi- 
ence ;  schools  called  ludi  ;  love  of  moderation  (p.  234) ;  Shakespeare's 
"  Coriolanus  "  (p.  235).  §  222.  Influence  of  Greece  after  the  conquest ; 
aesthetic  education  supplants  the  old  Roman  education ;  study  of 
Greek  language  and  rhetoric  (p.  235);  Greek  philosophy;  Cicero, 
Seneca,  Boethius :  use  of  rhetoric ;  Apollonius  of  Rhodes  (p.  236). 
§  223.  Literary  trifling  and  the  study  of  art  for  amusement ;  belles- 
lettres  ;  salons;  Sallust,  Pliny,  Nero  (p.  237).  §224.  Wearied  of 
amusement  in  art,  the  Roman  betook  himself  to  mysticism  and 
secret  rites  borrowed  from  Persian  and  Egyptian  mysteries  (p.  238). 


xxvi  ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS. 

§  225.  Grades  of  initiation  in  the  mysteries ;  Mithras,  Isis,  Pytha- 
goreanism ;  Apollonius  of  Tyana ;  the  Illuminati  (p.  239).  §  226.  Ab- 
stract individual  education.  The  individualism  of  the  Germanic 
tribes  called  abstract  because  pure  and  simple ;  its  characteristics ; 
why  called  dmmonic  (p.  240) ;  Berserker  rage ;  tragedy  of  Brunhild 
in  the  old  Norse  Edda  (p.  241). 

CHAPTER  VI.— The  System  of  Theocratic  Education.  §  227.  The 
Roman  idea  of  the  genus  humanum  ;  same  idea  reached  by  the  He- 
brew prophets  in  the  doctrine  of  a  Messiah  recognized  as  God  by  all 
nations ;  the  Jewish  view  of  Nature  as  entirely  distinct  from  God ; 
God  a  pure,  spiritual  personality  (p.  249) ;  Jewish  proselytes ;  in  what 
the  Jewish  and  Roman  ideas  are  identical  (p.  243).  §  228.  Emanci- 
pation from  idolatry  and  superstition  through  the  worship  of  God  as 
absolutely  above  Nature ;  the  ceremonial  law  as  God's  direct  will  and 
not  as  a  natural  law ;  the  decalogue  (p.  244).  §  229.  Patriarchal  ele- 
ment, hereditary  people  of  God ;  hierarchical  element,  observance  of 
ceremonial  law ;  cultivation  of  the  memory  (p.  245).  §  230.  A  prog- 
ress from  the  external  to  the  internal  and  from  lower  to  higher  (p. 
245).  §  231.  At  first  the  inducement  of  external  prosperity  and  the 
threat  of  punishment  for  disobedience ;  then  the  insight  into  the 
fact  that  the  law  contains  its  own  reward ;  Jesus  Sirach,  Plato's 
"  Republic  "  and  "  Laws  "  (p.  246).  §  232.  In  the  law  was  revealed  an 
ideal  standard  of  conduct  by  which  each  one  could  criticise  his  own 
life ;  the  belief  that  the  one  true  religion  will  prevail  everywhere  ulti- 
mately (p.  248).  §  233.  The  Prince  of  Peace ;  not  beautiful,  not 
great  in  battle,  but  holy ;  this  ideal  the  highest  of  all  ideals  (p.  249). 

CHAPTER  VII. — The  System  of  Humanitarian  Education.  §  234. 
The  systems  of  national  and  theocratic  education  unite  in  that  of  hu- 
manitarian education  (p.  250) ;  this  looks  upon  all  men  as  having  the 
same  ultimate  possibilities ;  the  goal  to  be  reached  is  the  brotherhood 
of  all  men  and  the  realization  of  the  consciousness  of  freedom  in  each. 
Its  ideal  is  the  foundation  of  such  institutions  as  secure  the  common 
good  of  all  without  suppressing  the  individuality  of  each.  The  best 
institution  enables  each  of  its  members  to  participate  to  the  greatest 
degree  in  the  good  of  all,  and  it  encourages  self-activity  in  the  high- 
est degree  (p.  251).  §  235  and  §  236.  The  epochs  of  humanity-educa- 
tion are  three — monkish,  chivalric,  citizen,  corresponding  to  the 
predominance  of  the  Greek,  Roman,  and  Protestant  Christianity  (p. 
253).  §  237.  The  epoch  of  monkish  education ;  within  the  Greek 
Church  the  principle  of  renunciation  of  the  world  took  strongest 


ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS  XXvii 

hold,  and  produced  the  hermit  phases  of  Christianity,  together  with 
the  first  phase  of  monasticism  (p.  253) ;  St.  Francis  and  St.  Dominic 
make  essential  changes  in  monasticism  (p.  254).  §  238.  The  one- 
sidedness  of  monasticism ;  its  tendency  toward  Oriental  quietism  (p. 
254).  §  239.  Its  tendency  to  reproduce  the  historic  past  rather  than 
to  realize  an  ideal  in  the  present  (p.  254).  §  240.  The  three  vows  of 
poverty,  chastity,  obedience,  signify  the  rejection  of  the  institutions 
of  civilization — civil  society,  the  family,  the  state ;  relation  of  La- 
maism  to  Christian  monasticism ;  Abbe  Hue  (p.  255) ;  explanation 
of  the  effect  of  the  three  vows  (p.  256).  §  241.  Monkish  discipline- 
fasts,  vigils,  penances  (p.  256) ;  espionage  (p.  257).  §  242.  The  with- 
drawal of  the  religious  element  into  cloisters  leaves  the  secular  world 
to  barbarism ;  the  Roman  Church  corrects  this  defect  (p.  257). 
§  243.  The  epoch  of  chivalric  education.  §  243.  By  the  principle 
of  sanctity  in  works,  the  Roman  Church  brings  back  religion  into 
the  secular,  and  chivalric  education  arises  (p.  258).  §  244.  Industry 
was  admitted  side  by  side  with  religious  ceremonial  in  the  Roman 
Church ;  Tauler's  "  Imitation  of  the  Life  of  Christ "  (p.  258).  §  245. 
The  education  of  chivalry  in  the  practice  of  arms,  in  knightly  eti- 
quette, and  poetry  (p.  259).  §  246.  Chivalry  goes  to  the  opposite  ex- 
treme of  monkish  education  in  its  placing  unbounded  value  on  indi- 
viduality ;  eccentricity  of  knight-errantry  (p.  260).  §  247.  Downfall 
of  chivalry  (p.  260) ;  the  Crusades ;  free  cities ;  free  citizenship  (p. 
261). 

CHAPTER  VIII. — Tlie  Epoch  of  Education  fitting  one  for  Civil 
Life.  §  248.  The  growth  of  cities  and  free  citizenship  finds  especial 
recognition  in  Protestantism,  whose  most  important  feature  is  the 
recognition  of  secularism  (p.  262).  §  249.  The  phases  of  development 
three — citizen  education  in  the  two  forms  of  pietism  and  Jesuitism, 
a  reaction  in  favor  of  classics  and  history  on  the  one  hand  and 
toward  the  study  of  natural  science  on  the  other,  the  reconciliation 
of  these  in  the  education  of  the  future  (p.  262).  §  250.  Civil  edu- 
cation as  such  overcomes  the  one-sidedness  of  chivalric  and  monkish 
education  (p.  263) ;  sensuality  and  love  of  display  (p.  264).  §  251. 
Utility  becomes  a  very  important  principle  (p.  265).  §  252.  Found- 
ing of  schools  for  citizens'  children ;  defects  of  educational  methods ; 
Melanchthon,  Amos  Comenius,  Sturm,  Roman  law,  and  medicine  at 
Bologna  and  Salerno ;  Protestant  universities  (p.  266).  §  253.  The 
citizen  class  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  three  estates ;  French  the 
language  of  courts;  unscrupulous,  worldly-wise  maxims;  self- 


xxviii  ANALYSIS  OF  CONTENTS. 

estrangement  of  the  nobles  (p.  268).  §  254.  Two  religious  systems—- 
Jesuitic and  pietistic  (p.  269).  §  255.  Jesuitic  education  character- 
ized ;  Claudius  of  Aquaviva ;  dialectics ;  rhetoric ;  physics ;  morals ; 
declamation;  diplomatic  conduct  (p.  270);  obedience;  discipline; 
number  of  schools ;  emulation ;  supervision  (p.  271).  §  256.  Pie- 
tism as  the  counterpart  of  Jesuitism — its  tendency  toward  quietism ; 
its  estrangement  from  the  world ;  its  ^negative  dependence  on  works 
(p.  272) ;  its  espionage ;  its  attitude  toward  Nature,  history,  and  phi- 
losophy ;  the  catechism,  the  Bible  and  hymn-book ;  the  feeling  of 
abandonment  by  God  (p.  273) ;  Spener  and  Francke ;  Quakers  and 
Puritans ;  the  truth  of  pietism  ;  the  truth  of  Jesuitism  (p.  274). 

CHAPTER  IX. — The  Ideal  of  Culture.  §  257.  Civil  education  rested 
on  the  fourfold  basis  of  (a)  marriage  and  the  family,  (b)  labor  and 
enjoyment  of  its  products,  (c)  equality  of  all  before  the  law,  (d)  the 
duty  of  acting  according  to  conscience ;  a  counter-reaction  now  set 
in  against  Jesuitism  and  pietism  (p.  275) ;  this  was  the  study  of 
Latin  and  Greek  and  the  study  of  natural  science  (p.  276).  §  258. 
The  humanist  ideal  was  supposed  to  be  attained  through  the  study 
of  Latin  and  Greek  (p.  276) ;  the  uselessness  and  remoteness  of  these 
studies  gave  the  mind  an  ideal  drift ;  the  true  reason  for  the  study 
of  Latin  and  Greek — self -estrangement  (p.  277);  Trotzendorf  and 
Sturm,  the  founders  of  academic  methods  that  still  prevail;  dis- 
cipline of  mind  (p.  278).  §  259.  The  philanthropic  ideal  was  found 
in  the  study  of  natural  science  and  of  useful  knowledge  (p.  279) ;  it 
spared  no  pains  to  make  the  pupil's  work  interesting ;  it  sought  cos- 
mopolitanism, and  found  its  ideal  realized  in  the  state  of  Nature — 
the  savage  in  America  or  Otaheite  (p.  280) ;  Rousseau ;  the  Philan- 
thropina  of  Basedow ;  the  French  Revolution ;  Pestalozzi  (p.  281) ; 
Fichte ;  the  dangers  of  humanism ;  the  "  moderns "  (p.  282) ;  self- 
estrangement  studies;  the  imaginary  "natural  man"  of  Rousseau 
(p.  283) ;  Friedrich  Froebel  (p.  284).  §  260.  Free  education  or  edu- 
cation of  all  classes  of  society  for  free  citizenship  (p.  284) ;  moral 
culture ;  the  consciousness  of  the  essential  equality  of  all  men  (p. 
285) ;  the  education  by  means  of  the  newspaper ;  modern  literature ; 
universal  toleration ;  fraternal  interest  of  each  in  all ;  commerce 
uniting  all  nations  ;  facilities  of  rapid  transit,  rapid  communication, 
and  the  printed  page,  hasten  forward  the  participation  of  each  in 
the  life  of  the  whole  race  (p.  286). 


TJNIVEBeiTX 
-> 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION, 


INTRODUCTION. 

§  1.  THE  science  of  education  can  not  be  deduced 
from  a  simple  principle  with,  such  strictness  as  logic, 
ethics,  and  like  sciences.  It  is  rather  a  mixed  science, 
which  has  its  presuppositions  in  many  others.  In  this 
respect  it  resembles  medicine,  with  which  it  has  this 
also  in  common,  that  it  must  make  a  distinction  between 
a  sound  and  an  unhealthy  system  of  education,  and  must 
devise  means  to  prevent  or  to  cure  the  latter.  It  may, 
therefore,  have,  like  medicine,  the  three  departments  of 
physiology,  pathology,  and  therapeutics. 

[*  The  science  of  education  is  not  a  complete,  independent  sci- 
ence by  itself.  It  borrows  the  results  of  other  sciences,  e.  g.,  it 
presupposes  psychology,  physiology,  aesthetics,  and  the  science 
of  rights  (treating  of  the  institutions  of  the  family  and  civil 
society,  as  well  as  of  the  state) ;  it  presupposes  also  the  science 
of  anthropology,  in  which  is  treated  the  relation  of  the  human 
mind  to  nature.  Nature  conditions  the  development  of  the  in- 
dividual human  being.  But  the  history  of  the  individual  and 
the  history  of  the  race  present  to  us  a  record  of  continual  eman- 
cipation from  nature,  and  continual  growth  into  freedom,  i.  e.,- 
into  ability  on  the  part  of  man  to  know  himself  and  to  realize 
himself  in  the  world  by  making  the  matter  and  forces  of  the 

*  The  [  ]  include  an  analysis  of,  and  commentary  on,  the  text. — EDITOR. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION. 

world  his  instruments  and  tools.  Anthropology  shows  us  how 
man  as  a  natural  being — i.  e.,  as  having  a  body — is  limited. 
There  is  climate,  involving  heat  and  cold  and  moisture,  the 
seasons  of  the  year,  etc.;  there  is  organic  growth,  involving 
birth,  growth,  reproduction,  and  decay ;  there  is  race,  involving 
the  limitations  of  heredity ;  there  is  the  telluric  life  of  the  planet 
and  the  circulation  of  the  forces  of  the  solar  system,  whence 
arise  the  processes  of  sleeping,  waking,  dreaming,  and  kindred 
phenomena;  there  is  the  emotional  nature  of  man,  involving 
his  feelings,  passions,  instincts,  and  desires ;  then  there  are  the 
five  senses,  and  their  conditions.  Next,  there  is  the  science  of 
phenomenology,  treating  of  the  steps  by  which  mind  rises  from 
the  stage  of  mere  feeling  and  sense-perception  to  that  of  self- 
consciousness,  i.  e.,  to  a  recognition  of  mind  as  true  substance, 
and  of  matter  as  mere  phenomenon  created  by  Mind  (God). 
Then  follows  psychology,  including  the  treatment  of  the  stages 
of  activity  of  mind,  as  so-called  "  faculties  "  of  the  mind,  e.  g., 
attention,  sense-perception,  imagination,  conception,  understand- 
ing, judgment,  reason,  and  the  like.  Psychology  is  generally 
made  (by  English  writers)  to  include,  also,  what  is  here  called 
anthropology  and  phenomenology.  After  psychology,  there  is 
the  science  of  ethics,  or  of  morals  and  customs ;  then,  the  science 
of  rights,  already  mentioned ;  then,  theology,  or  the  science  of 
religion ;  and,  after  all  these,  there  is  philosophy,  or  the  science 
of  science.  Now,  it  is  clear  that  the  science  of  education  treats 
of  the  process  of  development,  by  and  through  which  man,  as  a 
mere  animal,  becomes  spirit,  or  self-conscious  mind ;  hence,  it 
presupposes  all  the  sciences  named,  and  will  be  defective  if  it 
ignores  nature  or  mind,  or  any  stage  or  process  of  either,  espe- 
cially anthropology,  phenomenology,  psychology,  ethics,  rights, 
aesthetics,  religion,  or  philosophy. 

Here  is  a  conspectus  showing  the  systematic  classification  and 
arrangement  of  the  topics  necessary  to  a  full  treatment  of  man  as 
a  spiritual  being,  according  to  Rosenkranz  (who  follows  Hegel) : 

PART  I.— ANTHROPOLOGY. 
A.  The  soul  in  its  unity  with  the  body. 

I.  Natural  qualities  that  affect  mental  development. 

(1)  Telluric  influences  of  locality,  climate,  seasons,  etc. 

(2)  Race  peculiarities. 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

(3)  Individual  endowments  of  temperament,  talents,  idio- 
syncrasy. 

II.  Natural  processes  that  arise  in  the  human  organism,  and 
produce  various  shades  and  varieties  of  character. 

(1)  Difference  of  sex. 

(2)  Age :  infancy,  youth,  maturity,  old  age. 

(3)  Alternation  of  sleeping  and  waking. 
III.  Feeling. 

(1)  Feeling  as  distinction  of  the  soul  into  subject  and 

object  (pleasure  and  pain). 

(2)  External   and  internal  feeling  or  (a)  sensations  of 

touch,  taste,  smell,  hearing,  seeing,  and  (b)  emo- 
tions of  love,  hate,  joy,  sorrow,  fear,  hope,  envy,  etc. 

(3)  Feeling  of  personality  or  individual  identity  in  con- 

tradistinction to  sensations  and  emotions. 
3.  The  soul  in  its  struggle  against  its  union  with  the  body : 
I.  Dreams. 

(1)  Ordinary  dreams  that  occur  in  sleep. 

(2)  Waking  dreams  that  take  the  form  of  (a)  presenti- 

ments, (b)  hallucinations,    (c)   "second-sight,"  so 
called. 

(3)  Hypnotism :  (a)  somnambulism,  (b)  "  animal  magnet- 

ism "  or  "  magnetic  sleep,"  (c)  clairvoyance. 
II.  Sanity  and  insanity. 

(1)  In  what  sanity  consists. 

(2)  Derangement:  (a)  idiocy  and  feeble-mindedness,  (b) 

lunacy,  (c)  raving  madness. 

(3)  Cure  of  insanity. 
III.  Habit. 

(1)  How  the  soul  makes  new  and  strange  things  familiar 

and  natural  by  repetition. 

(2)  By  habit  the  soul  makes  a  second  nature  in  place  of 

its  animal  nature,  controlling  its  body  in  accord- 
ance with  customs,  fashions,  and  ethical  laws. 

(3)  The  body  obedient  to  the  soul  becomes  a  symbol. 

C.  The  symbolical  manifestation  of  the  soul  by  means  of  its  body. 
I.  Mimicry  and  gestures  (conventional  mimicry  of  different 

nations). 

II.  Physiognomy  and  facial  expression.    • 
III.  The  voice. 
3 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION. 

PART  II. — PHENOMENOLOGY  OF  THE  SOUL 
(or  the  history  of  consciousness  and  its  views  of  the  world). 

A.  Consciousness. 

I.  Sensuous  certitude. 
II.  Perception. 

III.  Understanding  (the  discovery  of  laws  of  nature  and  the 
announcement  of  ethical  laws  for  itself). 

B.  Self-consciousness. 

I.  The  non-personal,  or  that  which  is  devoid  of  self. 
II.  The  ego. 
III.  The  ego  related  to  other  egos. 

C.  Rational  self-consciousness  (or  that  view  of  the  world  that 

recognizes  it  as  a  manifestation  of  reason). 

PART  III. — PSYCHOLOGY. 

A.  Theoretical  mind  (or  the  intellect). 
I.  Sense-perception. 

II.  Representation  (or  mental  picturing), 

(1)  Recollection. 

(2)  Imagination  and  fancy. 

(3)  Memory. 
IIL  Thinking. 

(1)  Understanding. 

(2)  Reflection. 

(3)  Speculative  thinking. 

B.  Practical  mind  (or  the  will). 

I.  Practical  feeling  (or  the  emotions  that  lead  to  action  of 

the  will). 
II.  The  species  of  practical  feeling. 

(1)  Appetite  (or  desire  for  present  objects  of  sense-per- 

ception). 

(2)  Inclination    or    propensity  (desire    for   absent  ob- 

jects). 

(3)  Passion  (or  desire  that  absorbs  the  entire  thought 

and  will). 

111.  Happiness  as  the  result  of  regulated  impulses  and  their 
gratification. 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

PART  IV. — ETHICS. 

A.  The  good  (established  form  of  civilization). 
I.  "Will  realized  in  the  form  of  law. 

II.  Caprice  and  arbitrariness  (its  sphere). 
III.  Freedom. 

(1)  Self-legislation  (autonomy). 

(2)  Self-rule  (autocracy). 

(3)  Independence  (autarky). 

B.  Morality. 
I.  Duty. 

(1)  The  deed  of  the  individual. 

(a)  Free-will  (voluntary  and  involuntary  action). 

(b)  The  purpose  proposed  to  be  accomplished  by 

the  deed. 

(c)  The  ethical  intention  of  the  deed. 

(2)  Duty. 

(a)  Division  into  duties  toward  one's  self  and  toward 

society. 

(b)  Collision  of  duties. 

(c)  Relation  of  duties  to  ability  to  perform  them. 
II.  Virtue. 

(a)  System  of  virtues  (physical,  intellectual,  and 

practical).* 

(b)  Self-discipline. 

(c)  Character. 
III.  Conscience. 

C.  Ethical  institutions,  or  science  of  rights. 
I.  Bights  of  the  individual. 

(1)  Natural  rights. 

(a)  Personal  freedom. 

(b)  Property. 

(c)  Contract. 

(2)  Wrong. 

(3)  Punishment. 

II.  Particular  rights  (i.  e.,  those  that  appertain  to  institutions). 

(1)  The  family. 

(2)  Civil  society  and  the  community. 

(a)  The  nature  of  society. 

*  "  Practical "  used  in  the  Aristotelian  sense  of  belonging  to  the  mil. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY   OF  EDUCATION. 

(b)  Its  functions  in  detail. 

(a)  Human  wants  (food,  clothing,  shelter,  etc.), 

and  the  division  of  labor,  in  order  to 
supply  them. 

(b)  Courts  of  law,  civil  and  criminal. 

(c)  Civil    and  municipal    authority    (having 

charge  of  public  peace  and  order,  sani- 
tary regulations,  public  works  for  the 
common  benefit,  such  as  highways, 
water-works,  police,  poor-house,  jail, 
markets,  tax-levies,  etc.). 

(c)  The  commonwealth. 
(3)  The  state. 

(a)  The  legislative  power. 

(b)  The  administrative  power. 

(c)  The  supreme  executive  power. 

III.  International  relations  and  the  history  of  nations. 

(1)  The  national  state. 

(a)  The  states  of  the  passive  peoples. 

(a)  Patriarchal  state  (China). 

(b)  Caste  state  (India). 

(c)  Cloister  state  (Thibet). 

(b)  The  states  of  active  peoples. 

(a)  Warrior  state  (Persia). 

(b)  Priestly-agricultural  state  (Egypt). 

(c)  Manufacturing  and  commercial  state  (Phoe- 

nicia). 

(c)  The  states  of  free  individuality. 

(a)  ^Esthetic  individuality  (Greece). 

(b)  Practical  (will-power)  individuality  (Rome). 

(c)  Chivalric   individuality  (the  German  or 

"  Holy  Roman  "  Empire). 

(2)  The  theocratic  state. 

(a)  Jewish  theocracy. 

(a)  Mosaic  rule. 

(b)  Talmudic  rule. 

(b)  Mohammedan  state. 
(8)  Humanitarian  state. 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

PART  V. — ^ESTHETIC  ART. 

A.  The  beautiful. 

I.  The  nature  of  the  beautiful. 
II.  The  ugly. 
III.  The  comic. 

B.  Art. 

I.  The  ideal. 
II.  Style. 
III.  The  work  of  art. 

C.  The  system  of  fine  arts. 

I.  Plastic  arts  and  those  that  offer  visible  shapes. 

(a)  Architecture. 

(b)  Sculpture. 

(c)  Painting. 
II.  Music. 

III.  Poetry. 

(a)  Epic. 

(b)  Lyric. 

(c)  Dramatic. 

PART  VI.— RELIGION. 

A.  The  nature  of  religion. 

I.  Subjective  process  (regeneration). 

(a)  Unconscious  unity  with  God. 

(b)  The  fall,  and  consciousness  of  sin. 

(c)  The  atonement  and  reconciliation, 
II.  Objective  process  (worship). 

(a)  Prayer. 

(b)  Ceremonial. 

(c)  Sacrifice. 

III.  Absolute  process  (the  Church). 

(a)  The  Church  educates  the  individual  by  awakening 

his  consciousness  of  sin  and  leading  him  to  regen- 
eration. 

(b)  The  Church  organizes  worship  and  provides  times, 

places,  and  a  consecrated  priesthood. 

(c)  The  Church  organizes  a  universal  missionary  move- 

ment to  extend  its  view  of  the  divine  world-order 
to  all  men. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION. 

B.  Religious  phenomenology. 

I.  Religions  of  mere  emotion. 

(1)  Fetichism. 

(2)  Worship  of  elements. 

(3)  Worship  of  plants  and  animals. 
II.  Religions  of  imagination. 

(1)  Cosmogonies. 

(2)  Ethical-heroic. 

(3)  Allegorical. 

III.  Religions  of  pure  thought. 

C.  Historic  systems. 

I.  Religion  of  absolute  substance  (the  heathen  religions). 
II.  Religion  of  absolute  subjectivity  (Jewish). 
III.  Religion  of  absolute  spirituality  (Christianity — which  holds 
that  the  Absolute  is  Divine-human). 

PAKT  VII.— SCIENCE. 

A.  Sciences  of  nature. 
I.  Matter — mechanics. 
II.  Force — dynamics. 

(1)  Gravitation. 

(2)  Cohesion. 

(3)  Reaction  against  cohesion. 

(a)  Sound— acoustics. 

(b)  Heat. 

(c)  Light. 

(4)  Magnetic  polarity. 

(5)  Electric  polarity. 

(6)  Chemical  polarity. 

(7)  Meteorological  process, 

(a)  Process  of  the  atmosphere— winds,  tempera- 

ture, zones,  etc. 

(b)  Process  of  the  water. 

(c)  Fire  process. 
III.  Life— organics. 

(1)  Geology. 

(a)  Mineralogy. 

(b)  Stratification. 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

(c)  Configuration  of  the  surface  of  the  earth. 

(a)  The  factors :  mountains,  rivers,  sea. 

(b)  The  formations :  insular,  continental,  and 

peninsular. 

(2)  Vegetation— botany. 

(3)  Animal — zoology. 

(a)  Structure  of  animal  form. 

(b)  Vital  process. 

(c)  Classification  of  animals. 
B.  Sciences  of  spiritual  individuality. 

I.  Anthropology. 
II.  Phenomenology. 

III.  Psychology. 

IV.  Ethics. 

(1)  The  will. 

(2)  Morality. 

(3)  Institutions  of  civilization, 
V.  Esthetic  art. 

VI.  Religion* 
VII.  Philosophy.] 

§  2.  Since  education  is  capable  of  no  such  exact 
definitions  of  its  principle  and  no  such  logical  treat- 
ment as  other  sciences,  the  treatises  written  upon  it 
abound  more  in  shallowness  than  any  other  literature. 
Short-sightedness  and  arrogance  find  in  it  a  most  con- 
genial atmosphere,  and  uncritical  methods  and  declama- 
tory bombast  flourish  as  nowhere  else.  The  literature 
of  religious  tracts  might  be  considered  to  rival  that  of 
the  science  of  education  in  its  superficiality  and  assur- 
ance, if  it  did  not  for  the  most  part  seem  itself  to  belong, 
through  the  fact  that  it  attempts  to  influence  human 
conduct,  to  the  science  of  education.  But  teachers  as 
persons  should  be  treated  in  these  their  weaknesses  and 
failures  with  the  utmost  consideration,  because  with 
most  of  them  the  endeavor  to  contribute  their  mite  for 
the  improvement  of  education  arises  from  pure  motives, 


10  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION. 

and  the  work  of  teaching  tends  to  foster  the  habit  of 
administering  reproof  and  giving  advice. 

[The  scope  of  the  science  of  education  being  so  broad,  and  its 
presuppositions  so  vast,  its  limits  are  not  well  defined,  and  its 
treatises  are  very  apt  to  lack  logical  sequence  and  conclusion ; 
and,  indeed,  frequently  to  be  mere  collections  of  unjustified  and 
unexplained  assumptions,  dogmatically  set  forth.  Hence  the 
low  repute  of  educational  literature  as  a  whole.] 

§  3.  The  charlatanism  of  educational  literature  is  also 
increased  by  the  fact  that  schools  have  become  profitable 
undertakings,  and  the  competition  in  this  business  tends 
to  encourage  the  advertising  of  one's  own  merits. 

When  "  Boz  "  in  his  "  Nicholas  Nickleby  "  exposed  the  shocking 
doings  of  an  English  boarding-school,  many  teachers  of  such  schools 
were,  as  he  assures  us,  so  accurately  described  that  they  openly  com- 
plained he  had  aimed  his  caricatures  directly  at  them. 

[Moreover,  education  furnishes  a  special  vocation,  that  of 
teaching.  (All  vocations  are  specializing — being  cut  off,  as  it 
were,  from  the  total  life  of  man.  The  "  division  of  labor "  re- 
quires that  each  individual  shall  concentrate  his  endeavors  on 
his  own  specialty  and  be  a  part  of  the  whole.)] 

§  4.  In  the  system  of  the  sciences,  the  science  of 
education  belongs  to  the  philosophy  of  spirit — and  in 
this,  to  the  department  of  practical  philosophy,  the 
problem  of  which  is  the  comprehension  of  the  essence 
of  freedom ;  for  education  is  the  conscious  influence  of 
one  will  upon  another,  so  as  to  produce  in  it  a  conform- 
ity to  an  ideal  which  it  sets  before  it.  The  idea  of  sub- 
jective spirit,  as  well  as  that  of  art,  science,  and  religion, 
forms  an  essential  presupposition  for  the  science  of 
education,  but  does  not  contain  its  principle.  In  a  com- 
plete exposition  of  practical  philosophy  (ethics),  the  sci- 
ence of  education  may  be  distributed  under  each  of  its 
several  heads.  But  the  point  at  which  the  science  of 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

education  branches  off  in  practical  philosophy  is  the  idea 
of  the  family,  inasmuch  as  here  the  distinctions  of  age 
rjid  degrees  of  maturity  are  taken  account  of  as  arising 
from  nature,  and  the  claim  of  children  upon  their  par- 
ents for  education  makes  itself  manifest.  All  other 
phases  of  education,  in  order  to  succeed,  must  presup- 
pose a  true  family  life.  They  may  extend  and  comple- 
ment the  school,  but  can  not  be  its  original  foundation. 

In  this  systematic  exposition  of  education,  we  must  not  allow 
ourselves  to  be  led  into  error  by  those  theories  which  do  not  recog- 
nize family  nurture  as  an  essential  educative  influence,  but  demand 
that  children  shall  be  removed  from  their  parents  at  an  early  age, 
and  brought  up  in  institutions  provided  for  infants.  The  Platonic 
philosophy  is  the  most  respectable  representative  of  this  class.  Mod- 
ern writers  who  testify  their  great  pleasure  at  seeing  the  world  full 
of  children,  but  who  would  dispense  with  the  loving  care  of  the  fam- 
ily in  their  education,  offer  us  only  a  weak  and  impractical  imitation 
of  the  Platonic  "  Republic." 

[The  science  of  education,  as  a  special  science,  belongs  to  the 
collection  of  sciences  (already  described,  in  commenting  on  §  1) 
included  under  the  philosophy  of  spiritual  being  or  Mind,  and 
more  particularly  to  that  part  of  it  which  relates  to  the  will  (ethics 
and  science  of  rights,  rather  than  to  the  part  relating  to  the  in- 
tellect and  feeling,  as  anthropology,  phenomenology,  psychology, 
aesthetics,  and  religion.  "  Subjective  spirit "  includes  anthro- 
pology, phenomenology,  and  psychology.  "  Theoretical "  relates 
to  the  intellect,  "  practical "  relates  to  the  will,  in  this  philoso- 
phy). The  province  of  practical  philosophy  is  the  investigation 
of  the  nature  of  freedom,  and  the  process  of  securing  it  by  self- 
emancipation  from  nature.  The  science  of  education  presup- 
poses the  conscious  exertion  of  influence  on  the  part  of  the  will 
of  the  teacher  upon  the  will  of  the  pupil,  with  a  purpose  in  view 
— that  of  inducing  the  pupil  to  form  certain  prescribed  habits, 
and  adopt  prescribed  views  and  habits.  According  to  this  defi- 
nition, the  unconscious  influences  which  are  so  powerful  in 
forming  human  character  are  not  included  under  the  term 
"education"  (Erziehung)  as  here  used.  The  entire  science  of 


12  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION. 

man  (as  above  shown)  is  presupposed  by  the  science  of  educa- 
tion, and  must  be  kept  constantly  in  view  as  a  guiding  light. 
The  institution  of  the  family  (treated  in  practical  philosophy) 
is  the  starting-point  of  education,  and,  without  this  institution 
properly  realized,  education  would  find  no  solid  foundation. 
The  right  to  be  educated  on  the  part  of  children  and  the  duty 
to  educate  on  the  part  of  parents  are  reciprocal ;  and  there  is 
no  family  life  so  poor  and  rudimentary  that  it  does  not  furnish 
the  most  important  elements  of  education — no  matter  what  the 
subsequent  influence  of  the  school,  the  vocation,  and  the  state.] 

§  5.  Much  confusion  also  arises  from  the  fact  that 
many  do  not  clearly  enough  draw  the  distinction  be- 
tween education  as  a  science  and  education  as  an  art. 
As  a  science,  it  busies  itself  with  developing  a  priori 
the  idea  of  education  in  the  universality  and  necessity 
of  that  idea,  but  as  an  art  it  is  the  concrete  special  re- 
alization of  this  abstract  idea  in  any  given  case.  And, 
in  any  such  given  case,  the  peculiarities  of  the  person 
who  is  to  be  educated  and,  in  fact,  all  the  existing  cir- 
cumstances necessitate  an  adaptation  of  the  universal 
aims  and  ends,  that  can  not  be  provided  for  beforehand, 
but  must  rather  test  the  ready  tact  of  the  educator  who 
knows  how  to  take  advantage  of  the  existing  conditions 
to  fulfill  his  desired  end.  Just  here  it  is  that  the  edu- 
cator may  show  himself  inventive  and  creative,  and  that 
pedagogic  talent  can  distinguish  itself.  The  word  "  art " 
is  here  used  in  the  same  way  as  it  is  used  when  we  say, 
the  art  of  war,  the  art  of  government,  etc. ;  and  rightly, 
for  we  are  talking  about  the  possibility  of  the  realization 
of  the  idea  or  theory. 

The  educator  must  adapt  himself  to  the  pupil,  but  not  to  such  a 
degree  as  to  imply  that  the  pupil  is  incapable  of  change ;  on  the  con- 
trary, he  must  be  sure  that  the  pupil  shall  learn  through  his  ex- 
perience the  independence  of  the  object  studied,  which  remains  un- 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

influenced  by  his  variable  personal  moods,  and  the  adaptation  on  the 
teacher's  part  must  never  compromise  this  independence. 

[The  science  of  education  distinguished  from  the  art  of  educa- 
tion: the  former  containing  the  abstract  general  treatment,  and 
the  latter  taking  into  consideration  all  the  conditions  of  con- 
crete individuality,  e.  g.,  the  peculiarities  of  the  teacher  and  the 
pupil,  all  the  local  circumstances,  and  the  power  of  adaptation 
known  as  "  tact."] 

§  6.  If  conditions  which  are  local,  temporal,  and  in- 
dividual, are  fixed  as  constant  rules,  and  carried  beyond 
their  proper  limits,  unavoidable  error  arises.  The  for- 
mulae of  teaching  are  admirable  material  upon  which  to 
apply  the  science,  but  are  not  the  science  itself. 

[The  special  conditions  and  peculiarities  considered  in  educa- 
tion as  an  art  may  be  formulated  and  reduced  to  system,  but 
they  should  not  be  introduced  as  a  part  of  the  science  of  edu- 
cation.] 

§  7.  The  science  of  education  must  (1)  unfold  the 
general  idea  of  education ;  (2)  must  exhibit  the  particu- 
lar phases  into  which  the  general  work  of  education  is 
divided ;  and  (3)  must  describe  the  particular  standpoint 
upon  which  the  general  idea  realizes  or  will  realize  it- 
self in  its  special  processes  at  any  particular  time. 

[The  science  of  education  has  three  parts :  First,  it  considers 
the  idea  and  nature  of  education,  and  arrives  at  its  true  defini- 
tion ;  second,  it  presents  and  describes  the  special  provinces  into 
which  the  entire  field  of  education  is  divided ;  third,  it  considers 
the  historical  evolution  of  education  by  the  human  race,  and  the 
individual  systems  of  education  that  have  arisen,  flourished,  and 
decayed,  and  their  special  functions  in  the  life  of  man.] 

§  8.  The  treatment  of  the  first  part  is  logically  too 
evident  to  offer  any  difficulty.  It  would  not  do  to  sub- 
stitute for  it  the  history  of  education,  because  history 
uses  and  hence  presupposes  all  the  ideas  that  are  treated 
of  in  the  general  and  particular  divisions  of  the  system. 


14  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION. 

(Reference  to  Or.  Thaulow's  pamphlet  on  "Pedagogics  as  a 
Philosophical  Science."  Berlin,  1845.) 

[The  scope  of  the  first  part  is  easy  to  define.  The  history  of 
education,  of  course,  contains  all  the  ideas  and  definitions  of  the 
nature  of  education ;  but  it  must  not  for  that  reason  be  substi- 
tuted for  the  scientific  investigation  of  the  nature  of  education, 
which  alone  should  constitute  this  first  part  (and  the  history  of 
education  be  reserved  for  the  third  part).] 

§  9.  The  second  division  unfolds  the  subject  of  the 
physical,  intellectual,  and  practical  culture  of  the  human 
race,  and  constitutes  the  main  part  of  all  books  on  the 
science  of  education.  Here  arises  the  greatest  difficulty 
as  to  the  limitations,  partly  in  relation  to  the  amount  of 
explanation  to  be  given  to  the  ideas  that  are  borrowed 
from  other  sciences,  partly  in  relation  to  the  degree  of 
amplification  allowed  to  the  details.  Here  is  the  field 
of  the  widest  possible  differences.  If,  e.  g.,  one  studies 
out  the  idea  of  the  school  with  reference  to  the  dif- 
ferent species  which  may  arise,  it  is  evident  that  he 
can  extend  his  treatise  indefinitely ;  he  may,  for  exam- 
ple, go  into  the  consideration  of  technological  schools  of 
all  kinds,  for  mining,  navigation,  war,  art,  etc. 

[The  second  part  includes  a  discussion  of  the  threefold  nature 
of  man  as  body,  intellect,  and  will.  The  difficulty  in  this  part 
of  the  science  is  very  great,  because  of  its  dependence  upon 
other  sciences  (e.  g.,  upon  physiology,  anthropology,  etc.),  and 
because  of  the  temptation  to  go  into  details  (e.  g.,  in  the  prac- 
tical department,  to  consider  the  endless  varieties  of  schools  for 
arts  and  trades).] 

§  10.  The  third  division  distinguishes  between  the 
different  standpoints  which  are  possible  in  the  working 
out  of  the  conception  of  education  in  its  special  ele- 
ments, and  which  therefore  produce  different  systems  of 
education  wherein  the  general  and  the  particular  are 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

united  or  realized  in  different  ways.  In  every  system 
(historically  realized)  the  general  principles  that  belong 
to  the  idea  of  education  (treated  under  the  first  division), 
and  the  different  phases  of  physical,  intellectual,  and 
practical  culture  of  man  (treated  under  the  second  di- 
vision), must  be  found.  But  the  mode  of  treatment  is 
decided  by  the  historical  standpoint  which  gives  reality 
in  a  special  form  to  the  system  of  education.  Thus  it 
becomes  possible  to  discover  the  essential  contents  of 
the  history  of  education  from  its  idea,  since  this  can  fur- 
nish only  a  limited  number  of  systems. 

The  lower  standpoint  always  merges  into  the  higher,  and  in  so 
doing  first  attains  its  full  meaning,  e.  g. :  Education  for  the  sake  of 
the  nation  is  set  aside  for  higher  standpoints,  e.  g.,  that  of  Christi- 
anity ;  but  we  must  not  suppose  that  the  "  national  phase  "  of  edu- 
cation was  counted  as  naught  from  the  Christian  standpoint,  but 
rather  that  now,  being  assigned  its  proper  limits,  it  can  unfold  its 
true  idea.  This  is  seen  to  be  the  case  in  the  fact  that  the  national 
individualities  become  indestructible  by  being  incorporated  into 
Christianity — a  fact  that  condemns  the  abstract  seizing  of  such  re- 
lations. 

[The  third  part  contains  the  exposition  of  the  various  nation- 
al standpoints  furnished  (in  the  history  of  the  world)  for  the 
bases  of  particular  systems  of  education.  In  each  of  these  sys- 
tems will  be  found  the  general  idea  underlying  all  education, 
but  it  will  be  found  existing  under  special  modifications  which 
have  arisen  through  its  application  to  the  physical,  intellectual, 
and  ethical  conditions  of  the  people.  But  we  can  deduce  the 
essential  features  of  the  different  systems  that  may  appear  in 
history,  for  there  are  only  a  limited  number  of  systems  possible. 
Each  lower  form  finds  itself  complemented  in  some  higher  form, 
and  its  function  and  purpose  then  become  manifest.  The  sys- 
tems of  "  national "  education  (i.  e.,  Asiatic  systems,  in  which 
the  individuality  of  each  person  is  swallowed  up  in  the  substan- 
tiality of  the  national  idea — just  as  the  individual  waves  get 
lost  in  the  ocean  on  whose  surface  they  arise)  find  their  com- 
plete explanation  in  the  systems  of  education  that  arise  in  Chris- 


16  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDUCATION. 

tianity  (the  preservation  of  human  life  being  the  object  of  the 
nation,  it  follows  that,  when  realized  abstractly  or  exclusively, 
it  absorbs  and  annuls  the  mental  independence  of  its  subjects, 
and  thus  contradicts  itself  by  destroying  the  essence  of  what  it 
undertakes  to  preserve,  i.  e.,  human  life,  which  demands  freedom 
and  enlightenment ;  but  within  Christianity  the  principle  of  the 
state  is  found  so  modified  that  it  is  consistent  with  the  infinite, 
untrammeled  development  of  the  individual,  intellectually  and 
morally,  and  thus  not  only  life  is  saved,  but  spiritual,  free  life 
is  attainable  for  each  and  for  all).] 

§  11.  The  last  system  must  be  that  of  the  present, 
and  since  this  is  certainly,  on  one  hand,  the  result  of  all 
the  past  which  still  dwells  in  it,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  engaged  in  preparing  for  the  future,  education 
demands  the  unity  of  the  general  and  particular  princi- 
ple as  its  ideal,  so  that  looked  at  in  this  way  the  science 
of  education  at  its  end  returns  to  its  beginning.  The 
first  anc!  second  divisions  already  contain  the  idea  of  the 
system  necessary  for  the  present. 

[The  history  of  pedagogy  ends  with  the  present  system  as  the 
latest  one.  As  science  sees  the  future  ideally  contained  in  the 
present,  it  is  bound  to  comprehend  the  latest  system  as  a  reali- 
zation (though  imperfect)  of  the  ideal  system  of  education. 
Hence,  the  system,  as  scientifically  treated  in  the  first  part  of 
our  work,  is  the  system  with  which  the  third  part  of  our  work 
ends.] 


FIRST    PART. 

THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION, 


FIBST   PART. 

THE  GENERAL  IDEA   OF  EDUCATION. 

§  12.  THE  idea  of  the  science  of  education  in  gen- 
eral must  distinguish — 

(1)  The  nature  of  education  in  general ; 

(2)  Its  form ; 

(3)  Its  limits. 

[The  nature  of  education,  its  form,  its  limits,  are  now  to  be 
investigated.    (§§  13-50.)] 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  NATTJBE  OF   EDUCATION. 

§  13.  THE  nature  of  education  is  determined  by  the 
nature  of  mind — that  it  can  develop  what  it  is  in  itself 
only  by  its  own  activity.  Mind  is  in  itself  free ;  but,  if 
it  does  not  actualize  this  possibility,  it  is  in  no  true  sense 
free,  either  for  itself  or  for  another.  Education  is  the 
influencing  of  man  by  man,  and  it  has  for  its  end  to  lead 
him  to  actualize  himself  through  his  own  efforts.  The 
attainment  of  perfect  manhood  as  the  actualization  of 
the  freedom  essential  to  mind  constitutes  the  nature  of 
education  in  general. 
5 


20       THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  completely  isolated  man  does  not  become  man.  Solitary 
human  beings  who  have  been  found  in  forests,  like  the  wild  girl  of 
the  forest  of  Ardennes,  sufficiently  prove  the  fact  that  the  truly  hu- 
man qualities  in  man  can  not  be  developed  without  reciprocal  action 
with  human  beings.  Caspar  Hauser,  in  his  subterranean  prison,  is 
an  illustration  of  what  man  would  be  by  himself.  The  first  cry  of 
the  child  expresses  in  its  appeals  to  others  this  helplessness  of  man's 
spiritual  being  on  its  first  advent  in  nature. 

[The  nature  of  education  determined  by  the  nature  of  Mind 
or  Spirit,  whose  activity  is  always  devoted  to  realizing  for  itself 
what  it  is  potentially — to  becoming  conscious  of  its  possibilities, 
and  to  getting  them  under  the  control  of  its  will.  Mind  is  po- 
tentially free.  Education  is  the  means  by  which  man  seeks  to 
realize  in  man  his  possibilities  (to  develop  the  possibilities  of  the 
race  in  each  individual).  Hence,  education  has  freedom  for  its 
object.] 

§  14.  Man,  therefore,  is  the  only  fit  subject  for  edu- 
cation. "We  often  speak,  it  is  true,  of  the  education  of 
plants  and  animals ;  but,  even  when  we  do  so,  we  apply 
other  expressions,  as  "raising,"  "breaking,"  "breeding" 
and  "  training,"  in  order  to  distinguish  it  from  the  edu- 
cation of  man.  "  Training "  consists  in  producing  in 
an  animal,  either  by  pain  or  pleasure  of  the  senses,  an 
activity  of  which,  it  is  true,  he  is  capable,  but  which  he 
never  would  have  developed  if  left  to  himself.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  the  nature  of  education  only  to  assist 
in  the  producing  of  that  which  the  subject  would  strive 
most  earnestly  to  develop  for  himself  if  he  had  a  clear 
idea  of  himself.  We  speak  of  raising  trees  and  animals, 
but  not  of  raising  men ;  and  it  is  only  a  planter  who 
looks  to  his  slaves  for  an  increase  in  their  number. 

The  education  of  men  is  quite  often  enough,  unfortunately,  only 
a  "  breaking,"  and  here  and  there  still  may  be  found  examples  where 
one  tries  to  teach  mechanically,  not  through  the  almighty  power  of 
the  creative  Logos,  but  through  the  powerless  and  fruitless  appeal  to 
physical  pain. 


THE  NATURE  OF  EDUCATION.  21 

[Man  is  the  only  being  capable  of  education,  in  the  sense 
above  defined,  because  the  only  conscious  being.  He  must  know 
himself  ideally,  and  then  realize  his  ideal  self,  in  order  to  become 
actually  free.  The  animals  and  plants  may  be  trained,  or  culti- 
vated, but,  as  devoid  of  self -consciousness  (even  the  highest  ani- 
mals not  getting  above  impressions,  not  reaching  ideas,  not 
seizing  general  or  abstract  thoughts),  they  are  not  realized  for 
themselves,  but  only  for  us.  (That  is,  they  do  not  know  their 
ideal  as  we  do.)] 

§  15.  The  idea  of  education  may  be  more  or  less 
comprehensive.  "We  use  it  in  the  widest  sense  when 
we  speak  of  the  education  of  the  race,  for  we  under- 
stand by  this  expression  the  connection  which  the  situa- 
tions and  undertakings  of  different  nations  have  to  each 
other,  as  steps  toward  self-conscious  freedom.  In  this 
the  world-spirit  is  the  teacher. 

[Education,  taken  in  its  widest  compass,  is  the  education  of 
the  human  race  by  Divine  Providence.  Here  education  (Er- 
ziehung)  is  recognized  to  include  much  more  than  the  "con- 
scious "  exertion  of  influence  as  defined  in  §  4.] 

§  16.  In  a  more  restricted  sense  we  mean  by  educa- 
tion the  shaping  of  the  individual  life  by  the  laws  of 
nature,  the  rhythm  of  national  customs,  and  the  might  of 
destiny ;  since,  in  these,  each  one  finds  limits  set  to  his 
arbitrary  will.  These  mold  him  into  a  man  often  with- 
out his  knowledge.  For  he  can  not  act  in  opposition  to 
nature,  nor  offend  the  ethical  sense  of  the  people  among 
whom  he  dwells,  nor  despise  the  leading  of  destiny  with- 
out discovering  through  experience  that  upon  the  Neme- 
sis of  these  substantial  elements  his  subjective  power  can 
dash  itself  only  to  be  shattered.  If  he  perversely  and 
persistently  rejects  all  our  admonitions,  we  leave  him, 
as  a  last  resort,  to  destiny,  whose  iron  rule  must  educate 
him,  and  reveal  to  him  the  God  whom  he  has  ignored. 


22       THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

It  is,  of  course,  sometimes  not  only  possible,  but  necessary  for 
one,  moved  by  the  highest  sense  of  morality,  to  act  in  opposition  to 
the  laws  of  nature,  to  offend  the  ethical  sense  of  the  people  that  sur- 
round him,  and  to  brave  the  blows  of  destiny ;  we  are  not,  however, 
now  speaking  of  a  sublime  reformer  or  martyr,  but  of  the  perverse, 
the  frivolous,  and  the  conceited. 

[In  a  narrow  sense,  education  is  applied  to  the  shaping  of 
the  individual  by  his  environment,  so  that  his  caprice  and 
arbitrariness  shall  give  place  to  rational  habits  and  views,  in 
harmony  with  nature  and  ethical  customs.  He  must  not  abuse 
nature,  nor  slight  the  ethical  code  of  his  people,  nor  despise  the 
gifts  of  Providence  (whether  for  weal  or  woe),  unless  he  is  will- 
ing to  be  crushed  in  the  collision  with  these  more  substantial 
elements.] 

§  17.  In  the  narrowest  sense,  which,  however,  is  the 
usnal  one,  we  mean  by  education  the  influence  which 
one  individual  exerts  on  another  in  order  to  develop  the 
ktter  in  some  conscious  and  methodical  way,  either 
generally  or  with  reference  to  some  special  aim.  The 
teacher  must,  therefore,  be  relatively  finished  in  his 
own  education,  and  the  pupil  must  possess  complete 
confidence  in  him.  If  authority  be  wanting  on  the  one 
side,  or  respect  and  obedience  on  the  other,  this  ethical 
basis  of  development  will  be  lacking,  and  it  can  not  be 
replaced  by  talent,  knowledge,  skill,  or  prudence. 

Education  takes  on  this  form  only  under  the  culture  which  has 
been  developed  through  the  influence  of  town  life.  Up  to  that  time 
we  have  the  naive  period  of  education,  which  is  limited  to  the  gen- 
eral powers  of  nature,  of  national  customs,  and  of  destiny,  and  which 
lasts  for  a  long  time  among  the  rural  populations.  But  in  the  city 
a  greater  complication  of  the  environment  owing  to  the  uncertainty 
of  the  results  of  reflection  (one's  environment  being  chiefly  human 
and  given  to  reflection,  and  not  so  simple  as  the  rural  environment 
of  plants  and  animals),  the  specializing  of  individuality,  through  the 
need  of  the  possession  of  many  arts  and  trades  (and  consequent 
division  of  labor),  these  render  it  impossible  for  men  longer  to  be 


THE  NATURE  OF  EDUCATION.  23 

ruled  by  mere  custom.    The  Telemachus  of  Fenelon  was  educated 
*  to  rule  himself  by  means  of  reflection ;  the  actual  Telemachus  in  the 
heroic  age  lived  simply  according  to  custom. 

[In  the  narrowest  but  most  usual  application  of  the  term,  we 
understand  by  "  education  "  the  influence  of  the  individual  upon 
the  individual,  exerted  with  the  object  of  developing  his  powers 
in  a  conscious  and  methodical  manner,  either  generally  or  in 
special  directions,  the  educator  being  relatively  mature,  and  ex- 
ercising authority  over  the  relatively  immature  pupil.  Without 
authority  on  the  one  hand  and  obedience  on  the  other,  educa- 
tion would  lack  its  ethical  basis—a  neglect  of  the  will-training 
could  not  be  compensated  for  by  any  amount  of  knowledge  or 
smartness.] 

§  18.  The  general  problem  of  education  is  the  de- 
velopment of  the  theoretical  and  practical  reason  in  the 
individual.  If  we  say  that  to  educate  one  means  to 
fashion  him  into  morality,  we  do  not  make  our  defini- 
tion sufficiently  comprehensive,  because  we  say  nothing 
of  intelligence,  and  thus  confound  education  and  ethics. 
A  man  is  not  merely  a  human  being  in  general,  but,  as 
a  rational,  conscious  subject,  he  is  a  peculiar  individual, 
and  different  from  all  others  of  the  race. 

[The  general  province  of  education  includes  the  development 
of  the  individual  into  the  theoretical  and  practical  reason  im- 
manent in  him.  The  definition  which  limits  education  to  the 
development  of  the  individual  into  ethical  customs  (obedience 
to  morality,  social  conventionalities,  and  the  laws  of  the  state — 
Hegel's  definition  is  here  referred  to  :  "  The  object  of  education 
is  to  make  men  ethical ")  is  not  comprehensive  enough,  because 
it  .ignores  the  side  of  the  intellect,  and  takes  note  only  of  the 
will.  The  individual  should  not  only  be  man  in  general  (as  he 
is  through  the  adoption  of  moral  and  ethical  forms — which  are 
general  forms,  customs,  or  laws,  and  thus  the  forms  imposed  by 
the  will  of  the  race),  but  he  should  also  be  a  self-conscious  sub- 
ject, a  particular  individual  (man,  through  his  intellect,  exists 
forhimself  as  an  individual,  while  through  his  general  habits 
and  customs  he  loses  his  individuality  and  spontaneity).] 


24:  THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

§  19.  Education  must  lead  the  pupil,  by  a  connected 
series  of  efforts  previously  foreseen  and  arranged  by  the 
teacher,  to  a  definite  end ;  but  the  particular  form  which 
this  shall  take  must  be  determined  by  the  individuality 
of  the  pupil  and  the  other  conditions.  Intermittent  ef- 
fort, sudden  and  violent  influences,  may  accomplish  much, 
but  only  systematic  work  can  advance  and  fashion  him 
in  conformity  with  his  nature ;  and,  if  this  is  lacking,  it 
does  not  belong  to  education,  for  this  includes  in  itself 
the  idea  of  an  end,  and  that  of  the  technical  means  for 
its  attainment. 

[Education  has  a  definite  object  in  view,  and  it  proceeds  by 
grades  of  progress  toward  it.  The  systematic  tendency  is  essen- 
tial to  all  education,  properly  so  called.] 

§  20.  But  as  culture  comes  to  mean  more  and  more, 
there  becomes  necessary  a  division  of  labor  in  teaching 
on  account  of  technical  qualifications  and  special  infor- 
mation demanded,  because  as  the  arts  and  sciences  are 
continually  increasing  in  number  one  can  become  learned 
in  any  one  branch  only  by  devoting  himself  exclusively 
to  it,  and  hence  becoming  a  specialist.  A  difficulty 
hence  arises,  which  is  also  one  for  the  pupil,  of  pre- 
serving, in  spite  of  this  unavoidable  one-sidedness, 
the  unity  and  wholeness  which  are  necessary  to  hu- 
manity. 

The  na/ive  dignity  of  the  happy  savage  and  the  good-natured 
simplicity  of  country  people  appear  to  very  great  advantage  when 
contrasted  with  the  narrowness  of  a  special  trade,  and  the  endless 
curtailing  of  the  wholeness  of  man  by  the  pruning  processes  of  city 
life.  Thus  the  often-abused  savage  has  his  hut,  his  family,  his  cocoa- 
tree,  his  weapons,  his  passions  ;  he  fishes,  hunts,  plays,  fights,  adorns 
himself,  and  enjoys  the  consciousness  that  he  is  the  center  of  a  whole, 
while  a  modern  citizen  is  often  reduced  by  culture  to  a  mere  shred  of 
humanity. 


THE  NATURE  OF  EDUCATION.  25 

[Division  of  labor  has  become  requisite  in  the  higher  spheres 
of  teaching.  The  growing  multiplicity  of  branches  of  knowl- 
edge creates  the  necessity  for  the  specialist  as  teacher.  With 
this  tendency  to  specialties  it  becomes  more  and  more  difficult 
to  preserve  what  is  so  essential  to  the  pupil — his  rounded  human 
culture  and  symmetry  of  development.  The  citizen  of  modern 
civilization  sometimes  appears  to  be  an  artificial  product  by  the 
side  of  the  versatility  of  the  savage  man.] 

§  21.  As  it  becomes  necessary  to  divide  the  work  of 
instruction,  a  difference  between  general  and  special 
schools  arises,  also,  from  the  needs  of  growing  culture. 
The  former  give  to  the  pupil  with  various  degrees  of 
completeness  all  the  sciences  and  arts  reckoned  as  be- 
longing to  "general  education,"  and  which  were  in- 
cluded by  the  Greeks  under  the  general  name  of  Ency^ 
clopsedia.  The  latter  are  known  as  special  schools, 
suited  to  particular  needs  or  talents. 

The  isolation  of  country  life  renders  it  often  necessary,  or  at  least 
desirable,  that  one  man  should  develop  culture  symmetrically  in  very 
different  directions.  The  poor  tutor  is  required  not  only  to  instruct 
in  all  the  sciences,  he  must  also  speak  French,  and  be  able  to  play  the 
piano. 

[From  this  necessity  of  the  division  of  labor  in  modern  times 
there  arises  the  demand  for  two  kinds  of  educational  institu- 
tions— those  devoted  to  general  education  (common  schools,  col- 
leges, etc.),  and  special  schools  (for  agriculture,  medicine,  me- 
chanic arts,  etc.)]. 

§  22.  For  any  person,  his  actual  education  compared 
with  its  infinite  possibilities  remains  only  an  approxima- 
tion, and  it  can  be  considered  as  only  relatively  finished 
in  particular  directions.  Education  is  impossible  to  him 
who  is  born  an  idiot,  since  the  want  of  the  power  of 
generalizing  and  of  ideality  of  conscious  personality 
leaves  to  such  an  unfortunate  only  the  possibility  of  a 
mechanical  training. 


26       THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

Sagert,  the  teacher  of  the  deaf-mutes  in  Berlin,  has  made  lauda- 
ble efforts  to  educate  idiots,  but  the  account,  as  given  in  his  publica- 
tion, "  Cure  of  Idiots  by  an  Intellectual  Method,"  Berlin,  184G,  shows 
that  the  results  obtained  were  only  external ;  and,  though  we  do  not 
desire  to  be  understood  as  denying  to  this  class  the  possession  of  a 
mind  in  potentia,  it  appears  in  them  to  be  confined  by  disease  to  an 
embryonic  state. 

[The  infinite  possibility  of  culture  for  the  individual  leaves,  of 
course,  his  actual  accomplishment  a  mere  approximation  to  a 
complete  education.  Born  idiots  are  excluded  from  the  possi- 
bility of  education,  because  the  lack  of  universal  ideas  in  their 
consciousness  precludes  to  that  class  of  unfortunates  anything 
beyond  a  mere  mechanical  training.] 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   FORM  OF   EDUCATION. 

§  23.  THE  general  form  of  education  is  determined 
by  the  nature  of  the  mind :  mind  has  reality  only  in  so 
far  as  it  produces  it  for  itself.  The  mind  is  (1)  immediate 
(or  potential);  but  (2)  it  must  estrange  itself  from  itself, 
as  it  were,  so  that  it  may  place  itself  over  against  itself 
as  a  special  object  of  attention ;  (3)  this  estrangement  is 
finally  removed  through  a  further  acquaintance  with  the 
object — it  feels  itself  at  home  in  that  on  which  it  looks, 
and  returns  again  enriched  to  the  form  of  immediate- 
ness  (to  unity  with  itself).  That  which  at  first  appeared 
to  be  another  than  itself  is  now  seen  to  be  itsqlf. 

Education  can  not  create ;  it  can  only  help  to  develop  to  reality 
what  was  already  a  possibility ;  it  can  only  help  to  bring  forth  to 
light  the  hidden  life. 


THE  FORM  OF  EDUCATION.  27 

[Spirit,  or  mind,  makes  its  own  nature ;  it  is  what  it  produces 
— a  self -result.  That  is  to  say :  it  produces  its  ideas  through 
self-activity,  and  only  in  proportion  to  its  stock  of  ideas — their 
number  and  importance — can  mind  be  said  to  be  realized.  Ideas 
form  its  "  nature,"  and  they  are  made  by  the  self -activity  of 
mind.  From  this  follows  the  form  of  education.  It  commences 
with  (1)  undeveloped  mind — that  of  the  infant — wherein  nearly 
all  is  potential,  and  but  little  is  actualized  ;  (2)  its  first  stage  of 
development  is  self -estrangement — it  is  absorbed  in  the  observa- 
tion of  objects  around  it ;  (3)  but  it  discovers  laws  and  principles 
(universality)  in  external  nature,  and  finally  identifies  them  with 
reason — it  comes  to  recognize  itself  in  nature — to  recognize  con- 
scious mind  as  the  creator  and  preserver  of  the  external  world 
^and  thus  spirit  becomes  at  home  in  nature.  Education  does 
not  create,  but  it  emancipates.  It  does  not  make  self -activity, 
but  it  influences  it  to  develop  itself.  "  Self -estrangement  "  as 
here  used  is  perhaps  the  most  important  idea  in  the  philosophy 
of  education.  Rosenkranz  and  others  have  borrowed  it  from 
Hegel,  who  first  used  it  in  his  "  Phenomenology  of  Spirit "  (p. 
353)  in  explaining  the  revolutionary  reaction  against  established 
authority  and  traditional  faith  as  it  had  been  manifested  in  the 
French  Revolution.  The  explanation  of  the  effect  of  the  study 
of  classics,  pure  mathematics,  the  effect  of  foreign  travel,  of  the 
isolated  life  of  students  at  universities,  of  wearing  special  garbs 
that  distinguish  one's  order  from  the  rest  of  the  community,  in 
short,  of  any  study  of  strange  and  far-off  phases  of  the  world — 
the  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  principle  of  self -estrange- 
ment, and  its  annulment  by  changing  what  was  foreign  into 
what  is  familiar.] 

§  24.  All  culture,  whatever  may  be  its  special  pur- 
port, must  pass  through  these  two  stages — of  estrange- 
ment, and  its  removal.  Culture  must  intensify  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  subject  and  the  object,  or  that  of 
immediateness,  though  it  has  again  to  absorb  this  dis- 
tinction into  itself ;  in  this  way  the  union  of  the  two 
may  be  more  complete  and  lasting.  The  subject  recog- 
nizes, then,  all  the  more  certainly  that  what  at  first  ap- 


28       THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

peared  to  it  as  a  foreign  existence  belongs  to  it  poten- 
tially as  its  own  possession,  and  that  it  conies  into  actual 
possession  of  it  by  means  of  culture. 

Plato,  as  is  known,  calls  the  feeling  with  which  knowledge  must 
begin,  wonder ;  but  this  can  serve  as  a  beginning  only,  for  wonder 
itself  can  only  express  the  tension  between  the  subject  and  the  object 
upon  their  first  presentation  to  each  other — a  tension  which  would 
be  impossible  if  they  were  not  in  themselves  identical.  Children 
have  a  longing  for  the  far-off,  the  strange,  and  the  wonderful,  as  if 
they  hoped  to  find  in  these  an  explanation  of  themselves.  They  want 
the  object  to  be  a  genuine  object.  That  to  which  they  are  accus- 
tomed, which  they  see  around  them  every  day,  seems  to  have  no 
longer  any  objective  energy  for  them  ;  but  an  alarm  of  fire,  banditti 
life,  wild  animals,  gray  old  ruins,  Robinsons'  adventures  on  far- 
off  happy  islands,  etc. — everything  high  colored  and  glaring — leads 
them  irresistibly  on.  The  necessity  of  the  mind's  making  itself  for- 
eign to  itself  is  that  which  makes  children  prefer  to  hear  of  the  ad- 
venturous journeys  of  Sindbad  rather  than  news  of  their  own  city 
or  the  history  of  their  nation.  On  the  part  of  youth  this  same 
necessity  manifests  itself  in  their  desire  of  traveling. 

[This  process  of  self-estrangement  and  its  removal  belongs  to 
all  culture.  The  mind  must  fix  its  attention  upon  what  is  for- 
eign to  it,  and  penetrate  its  disguise.  It  will  discover  its  own 
substance  under  the  seeming  alien  being.  That  is  to  say,  it  will 
discover  the  rational  laws  that  underlie  the  strange  and  foreign 
being,  and  thereby  come  to  recognize  reason  or  itself.  Wonder 
is  the  accompaniment  of  this  stage  of  estrangement.  The  love 
of  travel  and  adventure  arises  from  this  basis.  Culture  endeav- 
ors first  to  develop  the  contrast  of  the  strange  to  the  familiar, 
but  it  does  this  in  order  to  annul  it  and  make  the  alien  into  the 
well-known.  Thus  it  enlarges  the  individual  by  making  him 
more  inclusive,  by  making  him  contain  his  environment.] 

§  25.  This  activity  of  the  mind  in  concentrating  it- 
self consciously  upon  an  object  with  the  purpose  of 
making  it  one's  own,  or  of  producing  it,  is  work.  But 
when  the  mind  gives  itself  up  to  its  objects  as  chance 
may  present  them,  or  through  arbitrariness,  careless  as 


THE  FORM  OF  EDUCATION.  29 

to  whether  they  have  any  result,  such  activity  is  play. 
Work  is  laid  out  for  the  pupil  by  his  teacher  authori- 
tatively, but  in  his  play  he  is  left  to  himself. 

[Labor  is  distinguished  from  play :  The  former  concentrates 
its  energies  on  some  object,  with  the  purpose  of  making  it  con- 
form to  its  will  and  purpose ;  play  occupies  itself  with  its  object 
according  to  its  caprice  and  arbitrariness,  and  has  no  care  for 
the  results  or  products  of  its  activity ;  work  is  prescribed  by 
authority,  while  play  is  necessarily  spontaneous.] 

§  26.  Thus  work  and  play  must  be  sharply  distin- 
guished from  each  other.  If  one  does  not  insist  on  re- 
spect for  work  as  an  important  and  substantial  activity, 
he  not  only  spoils  play  for  his  pupil  (for  this  loses  all  its 
attraction  when  deprived  of  the  antithesis  of  an  earnest, 
set  task),  but  he  undermines  his  respect  for  real  exist- 
ence. On  the  other  hand,  if  he  does  not  give  him  space, 
time,  and  opportunity,  for  play,  he  prevents  the  pecul- 
iarities of  his  pupil  from  developing  freely  through  the 
exercise  of  his  creative  ingenuity.  Play  sends  the  pupil 
back  refreshed  to  his  work,  since  in  play  he  forgets 
himself  in  his  own  way,  while  in  work  he  is  required 
to  forget  himself  in  a  manner  prescribed  for  him  by 
another. 

Play  is  of  great  importance  in  helping  one  to  discover  the  true 
individualities  of  children,  because  in  play  they  may  betray  thought- 
lessly their  inclinations.  The  antithesis  of  work  and  play  runs 
through  the  entire  life.  Children  anticipate  in  their  play  the  earnest 
work  of  after-life ;  thus  the  little  girl  plays  with  her  doll,  and  the 
boy  pretends  he  is  a  soldier  and  in  battle. 

[Work  and  play  :  the  distinction  between  them.  In  play  the 
child  feels  that  he  has  entire  control  over  the  object  with  which 
he  is  dealing,  both  in  respect  to  its  existence  and  the  object  for 
which  it  exists.  His  arbitrary  will  may  change  both  with  per- 
fect impunity,  since  all  depends  upon  his  caprice ;  he  exercises 
his  powers  in  play  according  to  his  natural  proclivities,  and 


30        THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

therein  finds  scope  to  develop  his  own  individuality.  In  work, 
on  the  contrary,  he  must  have  respect  for  the  object  with  which 
he  deals.  It  must  be  held  sacred  against  his  caprice,  must  not 
be  destroyed  nor  injured  in  any  way,  and  its  purpose  must  like- 
wise be  respected.  His  own  personal  inclinations  must  be  entirely 
subordinated,  and  tne  business  that  he  is  at  work  upon  must  be 
carried  forward  in  accordance  with  its  own  ends  and  aims,  and 
without  reference  to  his  own  feelings  in  the  matter.  Thus  work 
teaches  the  pupil  the  lesson  of  self-sacrifice  (the  right  of  superi- 
ority which  the  general  interest  possesses  over  the  particular), 
while  play  develops  his  personal  idiosyncrasy.] 

§  27.  Work  should  never  be  treated  as  if  it  were 
play,  nor  play  as  if  it  were  work.  In  general,  the  prac- 
tice of  the  arts  and  the  study  of  the  sciences  stand  in 
this  relation  to  each  other :  the  accumulation  of  stores 
of  knowledge  is  the  recreation  of  the  mind  which  is  en- 
gaged in  independent  creation,  and  the  practice  of  arts 
fills  the  same  office  to  those  whose  work  is  to  collect 
knowledge. 

[Without  play,  the  child  would  become  more  and  more  a  ma- 
chine, and  lose  all  freshness  and  spontaneity — all  originality. 
Without  work,  he  would  develop  into  a  monster  of  caprice  and 
arbitrariness.  From  the  fact  that  man  must  learn  to  combine 
with  man,  in  order  that  the  individual  may  avail  himself  of  the 
experience  and  labors  of  his  fellow-men,  self-sacrifice  for  the 
sake  of  combination  is  the  great  lesson  of  life.  But  as  this 
should  be  voluntary  self-sacrifice,  education  must  train  the 
child  equally  in  the  two  directions  of  spontaneity  and  obedi- 
ence. The  educated  man  finds  recreation  in  change  of  work.] 

§  28.  Education  seeks  to  transform  every  particular 
condition  so  that  it  shall  no  longer  seem  strange  to  the 
mind  or  in  any  wise  foreign  to  its  own  nature.  This 
identity  of  the  feeling  of  self  with  the  special  character 
of  anything  done  or  endured  by  it,  we  call  habit  (Ge- 
wohnheit  —  customary  activity,  habitual  conduct  or  be- 
havior. Character  is  a  "bundle  of  habits").  It  con- 


THE  FORM   OF  EDUCATION.  31 

ditions  formally  all  progress;  for  that  which  is  not 
yet  become  habit,  but  which  we  perform  with  design 
and  an  exercise  of  our  will,  is  not  yet  a  part  of  our- 
selves. 

[Education  seeks  to  assimilate  its  object — to  make  what  was 
alien  and  strange  to  the  pupil  into  something  familiar  and 
habitual  to  him.  The  pupil  is  to  attack,  one  after  the  other, 
the  foreign  realms  in  the  world  of  nature  and  man,  and  con- 
quer them  for  his  own,  so  that  he  can  be  "  at  home "  in  them. 
It  is  the  necessary  condition  of  all  growth,  all  culture,  that  one 
widens  his  own  individuality  by  this  conquest  of  new  provinces 
alien  to  him..  By  this  the  individual  transcends  the  narrow 
limits  of  particularity  and  becomes  generic — the  individual  be- 
comes the  species.  A  good  definition  of  education  is  this :  It  is 
the  process  by  which  the  individual  man  elevates  himself  to  the 
species.] 

§  29.  (1)  Habit  may  be,  in  the  first  place,  indiffer- 
ent as  to  the  subject-matter  to  which  it  relates.  But 
that  which  is  to  be  considered  as  indifferent  or  neutral 
can  not  be  defined  in  the  abstract,  but  only  in  the  con- 
crete, because  anything  that  is  indifferent  as  to  whether 
it  shall  act  on  this  particular  man,  or  in  this  special  situ- 
ation, is  capable  of  another  or  even  of  the  opposite 
meaning  for  another  man  or  even  for  the  same  man  in 
other  circumstances.  Here,  then,  appeal  must  be  made 
to  the  individual  conscience  in  order  to  be  able  from 
the  depths  of  individuality  to  decide  what  we  can  per- 
mit to  ourselves  and  what  we  must  deny  ourselves. 
The  aim  of  education  must  be  to  arouse  in  the  pupil 
this  spiritual  and  ethical  sensitiveness  which  does  not 
look  upon  anything  as  merely  indifferent,  but  rather 
knows  how  to  seize  in  everything,  even  in  the  seem- 
ingly unimportant,  its  universal  human  significance. 

But,  in  relation  to  the  highest  interests,  he  must  learn 
6 


32  THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

that  what  concerns  his  own  immediate  personality 
is  entirely  indifferent,  and  must  be  subordinated  to 
them. 

[Therefore,  the  first  requirement  in  education  is  that  the 
pupil  shall  acquire  the  habit  of  subordinating  his  likes  and  dis- 
likes to  the  attainment  of  a  rational  object.  It  is  necessary  that 
he  shall  acquire  this  indifference  to  his  own  pleasure,  even  by 
employing  his  powers  on  that  which  does  not  appeal  to  his  in- 
terest in  the  remotest  degree.  Habit  is  "  formal,"  i.  e.,  it  is  an 
empty  form  that  will  fit  any  sort  of  activity  or  passivity.  Habit 
can  make  anything  a  second  nature.] 

§  30.  The  indifference  of  habit  to  its  subject-matter 
disappears  when  external  considerations  of  usefulness 
or  hurtfulness  (advantage  or  disadvantage)  come  into 
view.  Whatever  tends  as  a  means  to  the  realization  of 
an  end  is  useful,  but  that  is  hurtful  which,  by  contra- 
dicting it,  hinders  or  destroys  it.  Usefulness  and  hurt- 
fulness  being  then  only  relative  terms,  a  habit  which  is 
useful  for  one  man  in  one  case  may  be  hurtful  for 
another  man,  or  even  for  the  same  man,  under  different 
circumstances.  Education  must,  therefore,  accustom  the 
youth  to  judge  as  to  the  expediency  or  inexpediency  of 
any  action  by  its  relation  to  the  essential  vocation  of  his 
life,  so  that  he  shall  avoid  that  which  does  not  promote 
its  success. 

[Habit  soon  makes  us  familiar  with  subjects  which  seem  re- 
mote from  our  personal  interest,  and  they  become  agreeable  to 
as.  The  objects,  too,  assume  a  new  interest  upon  nearer  ap- 
proach, as  being  useful  or  injurious  to  us.  That  is  useful  which 
serves  us  as  a  means  for  the  realization  of  a  rational  purpose ; 
injurious,  if  it  hinders  such  realization.  It  happens  that  objects 
are  useful  in  one  respect  and  injurious  in  another,  and  vice,  versa. 
Education  must  make  the  pupil  capable  of  deciding  on  the  use- 
fulness of  an  object  by  reference  to  its  effect  on  his  permanent 
Tocation  in  life. 


THE  FORM   OF  EDUCATION.  33 

§  81.  But  the  absolute  distinction  for  the  subject- 
matter  of  habit  is  the  moral  distinction  between  the 
good  and  the  bad.  For  from  this  standpoint  alone  can 
we  finally  decide  w^hat  is  allowable  and  what  is  forbid- 
den, what  is  useful  and  what  is  hurtful. 

[But  good  and  evil  are  the  ethical  distinctions  which  furnish 
the  absolute  standard  to  which  to  refer  the  question  of  the  use- 
fulness of  objects  and  actions.] 

§  32.  (2)  As  relates  to  form  (in  contradistinction  to 
subject-matter),  habit  may  be  either  passive  or  active. 
The  passive  is  that  which  teaches  us  to  bear  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  nature  as  well  as  of  life  with  such  composure 
that  we  shall  hold  our  ground  against  them,  being  al- 
ways equal  to  ourselves,  and  that  we  shall  not  allow  our 
power  of  acting  to  be  paralyzed  through  any  mutations 
of  fortune.  Passive  habit  is  not  to  be  confounded  with 
obtuseness  in  receiving  impressions,  a  blank  abstraction 
from  the  affair  in  hand,  which  at  bottom  is  nothing 
more  than  a  selfishness  which  desires  to  be  left  undis- 
turbed ;  it  is  simply  composure  of  mind  in  view  of 
changes  over  which  we  have  no  control.  While  we 
vividly  experience  joy  and  sorrow,  pain  and  pleasure — 
inwoven  as  these  are  with  the  change  of  seasons,  of  .the 
weather,  or  with  the  alternation  of  life  and  death,  of  hap- 
piness and  misery — we  ought  nevertheless  to  harden  our- 
selves against  them,  so  that  at  the  same  time,  in  our  con- 
sciousness of  the  supreme  worth  of  the  soul,  we  shall  build 
up  the  inaccessible  stronghold  of  freedom  in  ourselves. 

Active  habit  (or  behavior)  is  found  realized  in  a  wide  range  of 
activity  which  appears  in  manifold  forms,  such  as  skill,  dexterity, 
readiness  of  information,  etc.  It  is  a  steeling  of  the  internal  for  ac- 
tion upon  the  external,  as  the  passive  is  a  steeling  of  the  internal 
against  the  influences  of  the  external. 


34  THE   GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

[Habit  is  (a)  passive  or  (b)  active.  The  passive  habit  is  that 
which  gives  us  the  power  to  retain  our  equipoise  of  mind  in 
the  midst  of  a  world  of  changes  (pleasure  and  pain,  grief  and 
joy,  etc.).  The  active  habit  gives  us  skill,  presence  of  mind, 
tact  in  emergencies,  etc.] 

§  33.  (3)  Habit  (i.  e.,  fixed  principles  of  behavior, 
active  and  passive)  is  the  general  form  which  culture  (or 
the  outcome  of  education)  takes.  For,  since  it  reduces 
a  condition  or  an  activity  within  ourselves  to  an  instinct- 
ive use  and  wont  (to  a  second  nature),  it  is  necessary  for 
any  thorough  education.  But  as,  according  to  its  content 
(or  subject-matter  to  which  it  relates),  it  may  be  either 
proper  or  improper  (§  29),  advantageous  or  disadvan- 
tageous (§  30),  good  or  bad  (§  31),  and  according  to  its 
form  may  be  the  assimilation  of  the  external  by  the  in- 
ternal, or  the  impress  of  the  internal  upon  the  external 
(§  32),  education  must  procure  for  the  pupil  the  power 
of  being  able  to  free  himself  from  one  habit  and  to 
adopt  another.  Through  his  freedom  he  must  be  able 
not  only  to  renounce  any  habit  formed,  but  to  form  a 
new  one ;  and  he  must  so  govern  his  system  of  habits 
that  it  shall  exhibit  a  constant  progress  of  development 
into  greater  freedom.  We  must  discipline  ourselves 
constantly  to  form  and  to  break  habits,  as  a  means  to- 
ward the  ever- developing  realization  of  the  good  in  us. 

We  must  characterize  those  habits  as  corrupting  which  relate 
only  to  our  convenience  or  our  enjoyment.  They  are  often  not 
blamable  in  themselves,  but  there  lies  in  them  a  hidden  danger  that 
they  may  allure  us  into  luxury  or  effeminacy.  It  is  a  false  and  me- 
chanical way  of  looking  at  the  mind  to  suppose  that  a  habit  which 
has  been  formed  by  a  certain  number  of  repetitions  can  be  broken  by 
an  equal  number  of  denials.  We  can  never  renounce  a  habit,  which 
we  decide  to  be  pernicious,  except  through  clearness  of  judgment 
and  firmness  of  will. 


THE  FORM  OF  EDUCATION.  35 

[Education  deals  altogether  with  the  formation  of  habits. 
For  it  aims  to  make  some  condition  or  form  of  activity  into  a 
second  nature  for  the  pupil.  But  this  involves,  also,  the  break- 
ing up  of  previous  habits.  This  power  to  break  up  habits,  as 
well  as  to  form  them,  is  necessary  to  the  freedom  of  the  indi- 
vidual.] 

§  34.  Education  comprehends,  therefore,  the  recip- 
rocal action  of  the  opposites :  authority  and  obedience ; 
rationality  and  individuality ;  work  and  play ;  habit  and 
spontaneity.  If  these  are  reconciled  in  a  normal  man- 
ner, the  youth  is  now  free  from  the  tension  of  these 
opposites.  But  a  failure  in  education  in  this  particular  is 
very  possible  through  the  freedom  of  the  pupil,  through 
special  circumstances,  or  through  the  errors  of  the  edu- 
cator himself.  And  for  this  very  reason  any  theory  of 
education  must  take  into  account  in  the  beginning  this 
negative  possibility.  It  must  consider  beforehand  the 
dangers  which  threaten  the  pupil,  in  all  possible  ways 
even  before  they  surround  him,  and  fortify  him  against 
them.  Intentionally  to  expose  him  to  temptation  in 
order  to  prove  his  strength,  is  devilish;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  guard  him  against  the  possible  chance  of 
dangerous  temptation,  to  wrap  him  in  cotton  (as  the 
proverb  says),  is  womanish,  ridiculous,  fruitless,  and 
much  more  dangerous ;  for  temptation  comes  not  alone 
from  without,  but  quite  as  often  from  within,  and  secret 
inclination  seeks  and  creates  for  itself  the  opportunity 
for  its  gratification,  often  perhaps  an  unnatural  one. 
The  truly  preventive  activity  consists  not  in  an  abstract 
seclusion  from  the  world,  all  of  whose  elements  are  in- 
nate in  each  individual,  but  in  the  activity  of  instruc- 
tion and  discipline,  modified  according  to  age  and 
culture. 


36  THE   GENERAL   IDEA   OF  EDUCATION. 

The  method  that  aims  to  deprive  the  youth  of  all  free  and  indi- 
vidual intercourse  with  the  world  only  leads  to  continual  espionage, 
and  the  consciousness  that  he  is  watched  destroys  in  him  all  elasticity 
of  spirit,  all  confidence,  all  originality.  The  police  shadow  of  con- 
trol undermines  all  self-reliance,  and  systematically  accustoms  him 
to  dependence.  The  tragi-comic  story  of  Peter  Schlemihl  *  shows, 
it  is  true,  that  one  can  not  lose  his  own  shadow  without  falling  into 
the  saddest  fatalities ;  but  the  shadow  of  a  constant  companion,  as 
in  the  pedagogical  system  of  the  Jesuits,  undermines  all  naturalness 
and  ease  of  mind.  And  ii  one  endeavors  too  strictly  to  guard  against 
that  which  is  ill-mannered  and  forbidden,  the  intelligence  of  the 
pupils  reacts  in  deceit  against  such  efforts,  till  the  educators  are 
amazed  that  such  crimes  as  often  come  to  light  can  have  arisen  under 
such  careful  control. 

[Education  deals  with  these  complementary'relations  (antithe- 
ses) :  (a)  authority  and  obedience ;  (b)  rationality  (general  forms) 
and  individuality ;  (c)  work  and  play ;  (d)  habit  (general  custom) 
and  spontaneity.  The  development  and  reconciliation  of  these 
opposite  sides  in  the  pupil's  character,  so  that  they  become  his 
second  nature,  remove  the  phase  of  constraint  which  at  first  ac- 
companies the  formal  inculcation  of  rules,  and  the  performance 
of  prescribed  tasks.  The  freedom  of  the  pupil  is  the  ultimate 
object  to  be  kept  in  view,  but  a  too  early  use  of  freedom  may 
work  injury  to  the  pupil.  To  remove  a  pupil  from  all  tempta- 
tion would  be  to  remove  possibilities  of  growth  in  strength  to 
resist  it ;  on  the  other  hand,  to  expose  him  needlessly  to  temp- 
tation is  fiendish.  The  cure  of  vicious  tendencies  is  best  accom- 
plished by  strict  discipline  in  such  habits  as  strengthen  the  pupil 
against  them.] 

§  35.  If  there  should  appear  in  the  youth  any  de- 
cided moral  deformity  which  is  opposed  to  the  ideal  of 
his  education,  the  instructor  must  at  once  make  inquiry 
as  to  the  history  of  its  origin,  because  the  negative  and 
the  positive  are  very  closely  connected,  and,  what  ap- 
pears to  be  negligence,  rudeness,  immorality,  foolish- 

*  See  F.  H.  Hedge's  "  Prose  Writers  of  Germany,"  for  a  translation  ot 
Adalbert  von  Chamisso's  "  Wonderful  History  of  Peter  Schlemihl." 


THE  FORM  OF  EDUCATION.  37 

ness,  or  oddity,  may  arise  from  some  real  needs  of  the 
youth  which  in  their  development  have  only  taken  a 
wrong  direction. 

[Deformities  of  character  in  the  pupil  should  be  carefully 
traced  back  to  their  origin,  so  that  they  may  be  explained  by 
their  history.  Only  by  comprehending  the  historic  growth 
of  an  organic  defect  are  we  able  to  prescribe  the  best  reme- 
dies. Such  deformities  are  often  mere  symptoms  of  deeper 
evils.] 

§  36.  If  it  should  appear  on  such  examination  that 
the  negative  action  was  only  a  product  of  willful  igno- 
rance, of  caprice,  or  of  arbitrariness  on  the  part  of  the 
youth,  then  this  calls  for  a  simple  prohibition  on  the 
part  of  the  educator,  no  reason  being  assigned.  His 
mere  authority  must  be  sufficient  to  the  pupil  in  such  a 
case.  Only  when  this  has  happened  more  than  once, 
and  the  youth  is  old  enough  to  understand,  should  the 
prohibition  be  accompanied  with  a  brief  statement  of 
the  reason  therefor. 

This  should  be  brief,  because  the  explanation  must  retain  its 
disciplinary  character,  and  must  not  become  extended  into  a  doc- 
trinal essay,  for  in  such  a  case  the  youth  easily  forgets  that  it  was 
his  own  misbehavior  which  was  the  occasion  of  the  explanation.  The 
statement  of  the  reason  must  be  honest,  and  it  must  present  to  the 
youth  the  point  most  easy  for  him  to  seize.  False  reasons  are  morally 
blamable  in  themselves,  and  they  tend  only  to  confuse.  It  is  a  great 
mistake  to  unfold  to  the  youth  the  broadening  consequences  which 
his  act  may  bring.  These  possibilities  seem  to  him  too  uncertain  to 
affect  him  much.  The  severe  lecture  wearies  him,  especially  if  it  be 
stereotyped,  as  is  apt  to  be  the  case  with  fault-finding  and  talkative 
instructors.  But  more  unfortunate  is  it  if  the  painting  of  the  gloomy 
background  to  which  the  consequences  of  the  wrong-doing  of  the 
youth  may  lead,  should  fill  his  feelings  and  imagination  prematurely 
with  gloomy  fancies,  because  then  the  representation  has  led  him  one 
step  toward  a  state  of  wretchedness  which  in  the  future  man  may 
become  fearful  depression  and  degradation. 


38  THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

[If  the  negative  behavior  of  the  pupil  (his  bad  behavior)  re- 
sults from  ignorance  due  to  his  own  neglect,  or  to  his  willful- 
ness, it  should  be  met  directly  by  an  act  of  authority  on  the  part 
of  the  teacher  (and  without  an  appeal  to  reason).  An  appeal 
should  be  made  to  the  understanding  of  the  pupil  only  when  he 
is  somewhat  mature,  or  shows  by  his  repetition  of  the  offense  that 
his  proclivity  is  deep-seated,  and  requires  an  array  of  all  good 
influences  to  re-enforce  his  feeble  resolutions  to  amend.] 

§  37.  If  the  censure  is  accompanied  with  a  threat 
of  punishment,  then  we  have  the  kind  of  reproof  which 
in  daily  life  we  call  "scolding";  but,  if  a  reprimand 
is  given,  the  pupil  must  be  made  to  feel  that  it  is  in 
earnest. 

[Reproof,  accompanied  by  threats  of  punishment,  is  apt  to  de- 
generate into  scolding.] 

§  38.  Only  when  all  other  efforts  have  failed  is  pun- 
ishment, which  is  the  real  negation  of  the  error,  the 
transgression,  or  the  vice,  justifiable.  Punishment  in- 
tentionally inflicts  pain  on  the  pupil,  and  its  object  is, 
by  means  of  this  sensation,  to  bring  him  to  reason,  a 
result  which  neither  our  simple  prohibition,  our  expla- 
nation, nor  our  threat  of  punishment,  has  been  able  to 
reach.  But  the  punishment,  as  such,  must  not  refer  to 
the  subjective  totality  of  the  youth,  i.  e.,  to  his  disposi- 
tion in  general,  but  only  to  the  act  which,  as  result,  is 
a  manifestation  of  that  disposition.  It  nevertheless  acts 
on  the  disposition,  but  mediately  through  pain ;  it  does 
not  touch  directly  the  inner  being ;  and  this  (return  of 
the  deed  upon  the  doer)  is  not  only  demanded  by  justice, 
but  is  even  rendered  necessary  on  account  of  the  sophis- 
try that  is  inherent  in  human  nature,  which  assigns  to 
a  deed  many  motives  (and  takes  refuge  against  blame 
by  alleging  good  motives). 


THE  FORM  OF  EDUCATION.  39 

[After  the  failure  of  other  means,  punishment  should  be  re- 
sorted to.  Inasmuch  as  the  punishment  should  be  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  the  pupil  realize  that  it  is  the  consequence  of 
his  deed  returning  on  himself,  it  should  always  be  administered 
for  some  particular  act  of  his,  and  this  should  be  specified.  The 
"  overt  act  "  is  the  only  thing  which  a  man  can  be  held  account- 
able for  in  a  court  of  justice ;  although  it  is  true  that  the  har- 
boring of  evil  thoughts  or  intentions  is  a  sin,  yet  it  is  not  a 
crime  until  realized  in  an  overt  act.  It  is  a  mistake  to  punish 
for  "  general  naughtiness,"  or  for  evil  intent,  or  for  the  "  subject- 
ive totality  "  as  Rosenkranz  calls  it.  Any  particular  deed  is  one 
of  a  thousand  possible  deeds — the  intention  or  disposition  con- 
tains the  totality  of  all  these  possible  deeds,  but  they  belong  to 
the  pupil  as  his  exclusive  property  for  which  he  is  not  respon- 
sible to  his  fellow  human  beings  until  he  by  an  act  of  the  will 
makes  one  of  the  possible  deeds  actual.] 

§  39.  Punishment  as  an  educational  means  is  never- 
theless essentially  corrective,  since,  by  leading  the  youth 
to  a  proper  estimation  of  his  fault  and  a  positive  change 
in  his  behavior,  it  seeks  to  improve  him.  At  the  same 
time,  it  stands  as  a  sad  indication  of  the  insufficiency  of 
the  means  previously  used.  The  youth  should  not  be 
frightened  from  the  commission  of  a  misdemeanor  or 
from  the  repetition  of  his  negative  deed  through  fear 
of  punishment — a  system  which  leads  always  to  terror- 
ism; but,  although  this  effect  may  be  incidental,  the* 
punishment  should,  before  all  things,  impress  upon  him 
the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  negative  is  not  al- 
lowed to  prevail  without  limitation,  but  rather  that  the 
good  and  the  true  have  the  absolute  power  in  this  world, 
and  that  they  are  never  without  the  means  of  overcom- 
ing  anything  that  contradicts  them. 

In  the  statute-laws,  punishment  has  a  different  office.  It  must 
first  of  all  satisfy  justice,  and  only  after  this  is  done  can  it  attempt 
to  improve  the  guilty.  If  a  government  should  proceed  on  the  same 
basis  as  the  educator,  it  would  mistake  its  task,  because  it  has  to  deal 


40  THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

with  adults,  whom  it  elevates  to  the  honorable  position  of  responsi- 
bility for  their  own  acts.  The  state  must  not  go  back  to  the  genesis 
of  a  negative  deed  in  the  disposition,  or  the  motives,  or  the  circum- 
stances. It  must  assign  to  a  secondary  rank  of  importance  the  bio- 
graphical factor  which  contains  the  origin  of  the  deed  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  a  mitigating  character,  and  it  must  consider  first  of 
all  the  deed  in  itself.  It  is  quite  otherwise  with  the  educator ;  for  he 
deals  with  human  beings  who  are  relatively  undeveloped,  and  who 
are  only  growing  toward  responsibility.  So  long  as  they  are  still 
under  the  care  of  a  teacher,  the  responsibility  of  their  deed  belongs 
in  part  to  him.  If  we  confound  these  two  standpoints  on  which  pun- 
ishment is  administered,  that  of  the  state  and  that  of  education,  we 
work  much  evil. 

[Corrective  punishment  seeks  solely  the  improvement  of  the 
delinquent ;  retributive  punishment  under  statute  laws  seeks 
only  the  return  of  the  deed  upon  the  doer ;  i.  e.,  to  satisfy  the 
claims  of  justice.  Hegel,  in  his  "  Philosophy  of  History,"  in 
speaking  of  state  punishments  in  China,  drew  this  distinction 
and  pointed  out  its  significance.] 

§  40.  Punishment  as  a  negation  of  a  negation,  con- 
sidered as  an  educational  means,  can  not  be  determined, 
as  to  its  application,  by  mere  reference  to  the  deed,  but 
must  always  be  modified  by  the  peculiarities  of  the  in- 
dividual offender  and  by  the  other  circumstances.  Its 
administration  calls  for  the  exercise  of  the  ingenuity  and 
tact  of  the  educator. 

[Punishment  should  be  regulated,  not  by  abstract  rules,  but  in 

view  of  the  particular  case  and  its  attending  circumstances,  for 

the  reason  that  it  is  for  correction  and  not  for  retribution. 

Retributive  punishment  need  only  consider  the  magnitude  of 

the  offense.] 

§  41.  Generally  speaking,  we  must  take  into  consid- 
eration the  sex  and  the  age :  (1)  some  kind  of  corporal 
punishment  is  most  suitable  for  children,  (2)  isolation 
for  older  boys  and  girls,  and  (3)  punishment  based  on 
the  sense  of  honor  for  young  men  and  women. 


THE  FORM  OF  EDUCATION.  £1 

[Sex  and  age  of  pupil  should  be  regarded  in  prescribing  the 
mode  and  degree  of  punishment.  Corporal  punishment  is  best 
for  pupils  who  are  very  immature  in  mind ;  when  they  are  more 
developed  they  may  be  punished  by  any  imposed  restraint  upon 
their  free- wills  which  will  isolate  them  from  the  ordinary  rou- 
tine followed  by  their  fellow-pupils.  (Deprivation  of  the  right 
to  do  as  others  do  is  a  wholesome  species  of  punishment  for 
those  old  or  mature  enough  to  feel  its  effects,  for  it  tends  to 
secure  respect  for  the  regular  tasks  by  elevating  them  to  the 
rank  of  rights  and  privileges.)  For  young  men  and  women,  the 
.  punishment  should  be  of  a  kind  that  is  based  on  a  sense  of 
honor.  This  distinction  by  Rosenkranz  is  very  important.  It 
is  based  on  Hegel's  distinction  alluded  to  above  (§  39)  of  correct- 
ive from  retributive  punishment.  In  cities,  suspension  of  the 
pupil  from  school,  and  his  transfer  to  another  school  on  resto- 
ration, is  one  of  the  most  effective  means  ever  devised  for  devel- 
oping in  the  pupil  a  self-control  that  secures  good  behavior 
without  resort  to  corporal  punishment.* 

§  42.  (1)  Corporal  punishment  is  the  production  of 
physical  pain,  generally  by  whipping,  and  this  kind  of 
punishment,  provided  always  that  it  is  not  too  often  ad- 
ministered or  with  undue  severity,  is  the  kindest  method 
of  dealing  with  willful  defiance,  with  obstinate  careless- 
ness, or  with  a  really  perverted  will,  so  long  or  so  often 
as  the  higher  perception  is  closed  against  appeal.  The 
imposing  of  other  physical  punishment,  e.  g.,  that  of 
depriving  the  pupil  of  food,  partakes  of  cruelty.  The 
view  which  sees  in  the  rod  the  panacea  f  for  all  the 
teacher's  embarrassments  is  reprehensible,  but  equally 
so  is  the  false  sentimentality  which  assumes  that  the 
dignity  of  humanity  is  affected  by  a  blow  given  to  a 

*  "Keport  of  St.  Louis  Public  Schools  for  1873-"T4,"  pp.  200-202. 

t  "  Although  Orbilism  is  reprehensible,"  says  Eosenkranz,  referring  to 
the  flogging  schoolmaster  of  Horace :  "  Memini  qus9  plagosum  mihi  parvo 
Orbilium  dictare"  (so.  Carmina).  Hor.  Ep.,  2, 1,  71. 


42  THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

child,  and  confounds  self-conscious  humanity  with  child- 
humanity,  to  which  a  blow  is  the  most  natural  form  of 
reaction,  when  all  other  forms  of  influence  have  failed. 

The  fully-grown  man  ought  never  to  be  whipped,  because  this 
kind  of  punishment  reduces  him  to  the  level  of  the  child,  and,  when 
it  becomes  barbarous,  to  that  of  a  brute  animal,  and  so  is  absolutely 
degrading  to  him.  In  the  English  schools  the  rod  is  much  used.  If 
a  pupil  of  the  first  class  be  put  back  into  the  second  at  Eton,  he, 
although  before  exempt  from  flogging,  becomes  liable  to  it.  But 
however  necessary  this  system  of  flogging  may  be  in  the  discipline  of 
the  schools  of  the  English  aristocracy,  flogging  in  the  English  army 
is  a  shameful  thing  for  the  free  people  of  Great  Britain. 

[Corporal  punishment  should  be  properly  administered  by 
means  of  the  rod,  subduing  willful  defiance  by  the  application  of 
force.] 

§  4:3.  (2)  By  isolation  we  remove  the  offender  tem- 
porarily and  locally  from  the  society  of  his  fellows. 
The  boy  or  girl  left  alone,  in  abstract  independence,  cut 
off  from  all  companionship,  suffers  from  a  sense  of  help- 
lessness. The  time  passes  heavily,  and  soon  he  is  very 
anxious  to  be  allowed  to  return  to  the  company  of  par- 
ents, brothers  and  sisters,  teachers,  and  fellow-pupils. 

To  leave  a  child  entirely  to  himself  without  any  supervision,  even 
if  one  shuts  him  up  in  a  dark  room,  is  as  mistaken  a  practice  as  to 
leave  a  few  together  without  supervision,  as  is  sometimes  done  when 
they  are  kept  after  school ;  in  such  situations  they  give  the  freest 
rein  to  their  childish  wantonness  and  commit  the  wildest  pranks. 

[Isolation  makes  the  pupil,  realize  a  sense  of  his  dependence 
upon  human  society,  and  of  his  need  for  the  constant  expression 
of  this  dependence  by  co-operation  in  the  common  tasks.  Pupils 
should  not  be  shut  up  in  a  dark  room,  nor  removed  from  the 
personal  supervision  of  the  teacher.  (To  shut  up  two  or  more 
in  a  room  without  supervision  is  not  isolation,  but  association ; 
only  it  is  association  for  mischief,  and  not  for  study.)  (All  good 
behavior  that  is  not  founded  on  fear  must  take  its  rise  in  a  sense 
of  honor.  Corporal  punishment  degrades  the  man  or  the  youth 


THE  FORM   OF  EDUCATION.  43 

who  has  arrived  at  a  sense  of  honor.  In  communities  where 
children  acquire  this  sense  at  a  very  early  age,  corporal  punish- 
ment should  be  dispensed  with  altogether,  and  punishments  re- 
sorted to  that  develop  a  sense  of  responsibility  by  causing  the 
culprit  to  feel  the  effect  of  his  deeds  in  depriving  him  of  privi- 
leges common  to  all  good  pupils.)] 

§  44.  (3)  This  way  of  isolating  a  child  does  not  prop- 
erly touch  his  sense  of  honor,  and  is  soon  forgotten,  be- 
cause it  relates  to  only  one  side  of  his  conduct.  It  is 
quite  different  from  punishment  based  on  the  sense  of 
honor,  which,  in  a  formal  manner,  shuts  the  youth  out 
from  social  participation  because  he  has  attacked  the  prin- 
ciple which  holds  society  together,  and  for  this  reason  can 
no  longer  be  subsumed  under  its  generality  (i.  e.,  allowed 
to  participate  in  the  society  of  his  fellows).  Honor  is  the 
recognition  of  one  individual  by  others  as  their  equal. 
Through  his  transgression,  or  it  may  be  his  misdemeanor, 
he  has  simply  lost  his  equality  with  them,  and  in  so  far 
has  separated  himself  from  them,  so  that  his  banishment 
from  their  society  is  only  the  outward  expression  of  the 
real  isolation  which  he  himself  has  brought  to  pass  in 
his  inner  nature,  and  which  he  by  means  of  his  negative 
act  only  betrayed  to  the  outer  world.  Since  the  pun- 
ishment founded  on  the  sense  of  honor  affects  the  whole 
ethical  man  and  makes  a  lasting  impression  upon  his 
memory,  extreme  caution  is  necessary  in  its  application 
lest  a  permanent  injury  be  inflicted  upon  the  character. 
The  idea  of  his  perpetual  continuance  in  disgrace,  de- 
stroys in  a  manvall  aspiration  for  improvement. 

Within  the  family  this  feeling  of  honor  can  not  be  so  actively 
developed,  because  every  member  of  it  is  bound  to  every  other  im- 
mediately by  natural  ties,  and  hence  is  equal  to  every  other.  Within 
its  sacred  circle,  he  who  has  isolated  himself  is  still  beloved,  though 
it  may  be  through  tears.  However  bad  may  be  the  deed  he  has  com- 
7 


44  THE   GENERAL   IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

mitted,  he  is  never  given  up,  but  the  deepest  sympathy  is  felt  for  him 
because  he  is  still  brother,  father,  etc.  But  first  in  the  relation  of 
one  family  with  another,  and  still  more  in  the  relation  of  an  indi- 
vidual with  any  institution  which  is  founded  not  on  natural  ties,  but 
is  set  over  against  him  as  an  entirely  independent  existence,  this  feel- 
ing of  honor  appears.  In  the  school,  and  in  the  matter  of  ranks  and 
honors  in  a  school,  this  is  very  important. 

[Punishment  based  on  the  sense  of  honor  may  or  may  not 
be  based  on  isolation.  It  implies  a  degree  of  maturity  on  the 
part  of  the  pupil.  Through  his  offense  the  pupil  has  destroyed 
his  equality  with  his  fellows,  and  has  in  reality,  in  his  inmost 
nature,  isolated  himself  from  them.  Corporal  punishment  is  ex- 
ternal, but  it  may  be  accompanied  with  a  keen  sense  of  dishonor. 
Isolation  also  may,  to  a  pupil  who  is  sensitive  to  honor,  be  a 
severe  blow  to  self-respect.  But  a  punishment  founded  entirely 
on  the  sense  of  honor  would  be  wholly  internal,  and  have  no  ex- 
ternal discomfort  attached  to  it.  He  who  "  attacks  the  principle 
that  holds  society  together,"  by  doing  things  that  tend  to  de- 
stroy that  social  union,  should  be  excluded  from  it  or  "  not  sub- 
sumed under  its  generality."  Social  union  is  a  common  bond, 
a  general  condition,  or  a  participation.  Regularity,  punctuality, 
silence,  attention,  and  industry,  are  indispensable  for  the  associ- 
ated effort  of  the  school,  and  the  pupil  who  persistently  violates 
these  conditions  should  be  isolated  from  the  school.] 

§  45.  It  is  important  to  consider  well  this  gradation  of 
punishment — which,  starting  with  physical  pain,  which 
appeals  to  the  senses,  passes  through  the  external  tele- 
ology (appeal  to  external  motives)  of  temporary  isolation 
up  to  the  idealism  (appeal  to  one's  ideal)  of  the  sense  of 
honor — both  in  relation  to  the  different  ages  at  which 
they  are  appropriate  and  to  the  training  which  they 
bring  with  them.  Every  punishment  must  be  consid- 
ered merely  as  a  means  to  some  end,  and,  in  so  far,  as 
transitory.  The  pupil  must  always  be  deeply  conscious 
that  it  is  very  painful  to  his  instructor  to  be  obliged  to 
punish  him.  This  pathos  of  another's  solicitude  for  his 


THE  tJMITS  OF  EDUCATION.  45 

cure,  which  he  perceives  in  the  mien,  in  the  tone  of  the 
voice,  in  the  hesitation  with  which  the  punishment  is 
administered,  will  become  a  purifying  fire  for  his  soul. 

[The  necessity  of  carefully  adapting  the  punishment  to  the 
age  and  maturity  of  the  pupil  renders  it  the  most  difficult  part 
of  the  teacher's  duties.  It  is  essential  that  the  air  and  manner 
of  the  teacher  who  punishes  should  be  that  of  one  who  acts  from 
a  sense  of  painful  duty,  and  not  from  any  delight  in  being  the 
cause  of  suffering.  Not  personal  likes  and  dislikes,  but  the  ra- 
tional necessity  which  is  over  teacher  and  pupil  alike,  causes  the 
infliction  of  pain  on  the  pupil] 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   LIMITS   OF   EDUCATION. 

§  46.  As  respects  its  form,  education  reaches  its  lim- 
its with  the  idea  of  punishment,  because  this  is  the  ef- 
fort to  conquer  the  negative  reality  (i.  e.,  the  resistance 
which  it  meets  in  the  pupiPs  opposition)  and  to  make  it 
conformable  to  its  positive  idea.  But  the  general  limits 
of  education  are  found  in  the  idea  of  its  function,  which 
is  to  fashion  the  individual  into  theoretical  and  practical 
rationality.  The  authority  of  the  educator  at  last  be- 
comes imperceptible,  and  it  passes  over  into  advice  and 
example,  and  obedience  changes  from  blind  conformity 
to  free  gratitude  and  attachment.  Individuality  wears 
off  its  rough  edges,  and  is  transfigured  into  the  univer- 
sality and  necessity  of  reason  without  losing  in  this  pro- 
cess its  personal  identity.  Work  becomes  enjoyment, 
and  he  finds  his  play  in  a  change  of  activity.  The 


4:6       THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

youth  takes  possession  of  himself,  and  can  be  left  to 
himself. 

There  are  two  widely  differing  views  with  regard  to  the  limits 
of  education.  One  lays  great  stress  on  the  weakness  of  the  pupil  and 
the  power  of  the  teacher.  According  to  this  view,  education  has  for 
its  province  the  entire  formation  of  the  youth.  The  despotism  of 
this  view  often  manifests  itself,  where  large  numbers  are  to  be  edu- 
cated together,  and  with  very  undesirable  results,  because  it  assumes 
that  the  individual  pupil  is  only  a  specimen  of  the  whole,  as  if  the 
school  were  a  great  factory  where  each  piece  of  goods  is  to  be  stamped 
exactly  like  all  the  rest.  Individuality  is  reduced  by  the  tyranny  of 
such  despotism  to  one  uniform  level  till  all  originality  is  destroyed, 
as  in  cloisters,  barracks,  and  orphan  asylums,  where  only  one  indi- 
vidual seems  to  exist.  There  is  a  kind  of  pedagogy,  also,  which  fan- 
cies that  one  can  thrash  into  or  out  of  the  individual  pupil  what  one 
will.  This  may  be  called  a  superstitious  belief  in  the  power  of  edu- 
cation. The  opposite  extreme  is  skeptical,  and  advances  the  policy 
which  lets  alone  and  does  nothing,  urging  that  individuality  is  uncon- 
querable, and  that  often  the  most  careful  and  far-sighted  education 
fails  of  reaching  its  aim  in  so  far  as  it  is  opposed  to  the  nature  of  the 
youth,  and  that  this  individuality  has  made  of  no  avail  all  efforts  to- 
ward the  obtaining  of  any  end  which  was  opposed  to  it.  This  view 
of  the  fruitlessness  of  all  educational  efforts  engenders  an  indiffer- 
ence toward  it  which  would  leave,  as  a  result,  only  a  sort  of  vegeta- 
tion of  individuality  growing  at  hap-hazard. 

[Punishment  is  the  final  topic  considered  under  the  head  of 
"  Form  of  Education,"  and  it  introduces  us  to  the  next  topic, 
"  The  Limits  of  Education."  In  the  act  of  punishment,  the 
teacher  abandons  the  legitimate  province  of  education,  which 
seeks  to  make  the  pupil  rational  or  obedient  to  what  is  reason- 
able, as  a  habit,  and  from  his  own  free-will.  The  pupil  is  pun- 
ished in  order  that  he  may  be  made  to  conform  to  the  rational, 
by  the  application  of  constraint.  Another  will  is  substituted  for 
the  pupil's,  and  good  behavior  is  produced,  but  not  by  the  pu- 
pil's free  act.  In  disobedience  and  in  the  occasion  for  the  use 
of  punishment  accordingly  education  encounters  its  negative 
limit — the  limit  that  excludes  it  and  refuses  to  receive  it.  While 
education  finds  a  negative  limit  in  punishment,  it  finds  a  posi- 
tive limit  in  the  accomplishment  of  its  legitimate  object,  which 


THE  LIMITS  OF  EDUCATION.  47 

is  the  emancipation  of  the  pupil  from  the  state  of  imbecility, 
as  regards  mental  and  moral  self-control,  into  the  ability  to 
direct  himself  rationally.  The  school  has  done  its  work  and  is 
no  longer  needed.  When  the  pupil  has  acquired  the  discipline 
which  enables  him  to  direct  his  studies  properly,  and  to  control 
his  inclinations  in  such  a  manner  as  to  pursue  his  work  regular- 
ly, the  teacher  is  superfluous  for  him — he  becomes  his  own  teach- 
er. There  may  be  two  extreme  views  on  this  subject — the  one 
tending  toward  the  negative  extreme  of  requiring  the  teacher  to 
do  everything  for  the  pupil,  substituting  his  will  for  that  of  the 
pupil,  and  the  other  view  tending  to  the  positive  extreme,  and 
leaving  everything  to  the  pupil,  even  before  his  will  is  trained 
into  habits  of  self-control,  or  his  mind  provided  with  the  neces- 
sary elementary  branches  requisite  for  the  prosecution  of  further 
study.] 

§  47.  (1)  The  first  limit  of  education  is  a  subjective 
one,  a  limit  found  in  the  individuality  of  the  youth. 
This  is  a  definitive  (insurmountable)  limit.  "Whatever 
does  not  exist  in  this  individuality  as  a  possibility  can 
not  be  developed  from  it.  Education  can  only  lead  and 
assist ;  it  can  not  create.  "What  Nature  has  denied  to  a 
man,  education  can  not  give  him  any  more  than  it  is 
able,  011  the  other  hand,  to  annihilate  entirely  his  origi- 
nal gifts,  although  it  is  true  that  his  talents  may  be  sup- 
pressed, distorted,  and  measurably  destroyed.  But  the 
decision  of  the  question  in  what  the  real  essence  of  any 
one's  individuality  consists  can  never  be  made  with  cer- 
tainty till  he  has  left  behind  him  his  years  of  develop- 
ment, because  it  is  then  only  that  he  first  arrives  at  the 
consciousness  of  his  entire  self;  besides,  at  this  time, 
many  superficial  acquirements  will  drop  off ;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  talents,  long  slumbering  and  unsuspected, 
may  first  make  their  appearance.  Whatever  has  been 
forced  upon  a  child  in  opposition  to  his  individuality, 
whatever  has  been  only  driven  into  him  and  has  lacked 


48  THE   GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

receptivity  on  his  part  or  a  demand  for  cultivation,  re- 
mains attached  to  his  being  only  as  an  external  orna- 
ment, a  parasitical  outgrowth  which  enfeebles  his  own 
proper  character. 

We  must  distinguish  from  that  false  tendency  which  arises 
through  a  misunderstanding  of  the  limit  of  individuality,  the  affecta- 
tion of  children  and  young  persons  who  often  suppose,  when  they  see 
models  finished  and  complete  in  grown  persons,  that  they  themselves 
are  endowed  by  Nature  with  the  power  to  develop  into  the  same. 
When  they  see  a  reality  which  corresponds  to  their  own  possibility, 
the  anticipation  of  a  like  or  a  similar  attainment  moves  them  to  an 
imitation  of  it  as  a  model  personality.  This  may  be  sometimes  car- 
ried so  far  as  to  be  disagreeable  or  ridiculous,  but  should  not  be  too 
strongly  censured,  because  it  springs  from  a  positive  striving  after 
culture,  and  needs  only  proper  direction.  • 

[The  subjective  limit  of  education  (on  the  negative  side)  is 
to  be  found  in  the  individuality  of  the  pupil — the  limit  to  his 
natural  capacity.] 

§  48.  (2)  The  second  or  objective  limit  of  educa- 
tion lies  in  the  means  which  can  be  appropriated  for  it. 
That  the  talent  for  a  certain  culture  shall  be  present  is 
certainly  the  first  thing ;  but  the  cultivation  of  this  tal- 
ent is  the  second,  and  no  less  necessary.  But  how  much 
cultivation  can  be  given  to  it  extensively  and  intensively 
depends  upon  the  means  used,  and  these  again  are  con- 
ditioned by  the  material  resources  of  the  family  to 
which  one  belongs.  The  greater  and  more  valuable  the 
means  of  culture  which  are  found  in  a  family,  the  greater 
is  the  immediate  advantage  which  the  culture  of  each 
one  has  at  the  start.  With  regard  to  many  of  the  arts 
and  sciences  this  limit  of  education  is  of  great  signifi- 
cance. But  the  means  alone  are  of  no  avail.  The  finest 
educational  apparatus  will  produce  no  fruit  where  cor- 
responding talent  is  wanting,  while  on  the  other  hand 


THE  LIMITS  OF  EDUCATION. 

talent  often  accomplishes  incredible  feats  with  very  lim- 
ited means,  and,  if  the  way  is  only  once  open,  makes  of 
itself  a  center  of  attraction  which  draws  to  itself  with 
magnetic  power  the  necessary  means.  The  moral  cult- 
ure of  each  one  is,  however,  fortunately  from  its  very 
nature,  out  of  the  reach  of  such  dependence. 

In  considering  the  limit  made  by  individuality  we  recognize  the 
side  of  truth  in  that  indifference  which  considers  education  entirely 
superfluous,  and  in  considering  the  means  of  culture  we  find  the 
truth  in  the  other  extreme,  that  of  pedagogical  despotism,  which  fan- 
cies that  it  can  command  whatever  culture  it  chooses  for  any  one 
without  regard  to  his  individuality. 

[The  objective  limit  to  education  lies  in  the  amount  of  time 
that  the  person  may  devote  to  his  training.  It,  therefore,  de- 
pends largely  upon  wealth,  or  other  fortunate  circumstances.] 

§  49.  (3)  Finally r,  the  absolute  limit  of  education 
is  the  time  when  the  youth  has  apprehended  the  prob- 
lem which  he  has  to  solve,  has  learned  to  know  the 
means  at  his  disposal,  and  has  acquired  a  certain  facil- 
ity in  using  them.  (The  end  and  aim  of  education  is 
the  emancipation  of  me  youth  A  It  strives  to  make  him 
self-dependent,  and  as  soon  as  he  has  become  so  it 
wishes  to  retire  and  leave  to  him  the  sole  responsibility 
for  his  actions.  To  treat  the  youth  after  he  has  passed 
this  point  of  time  still  as  a  youth,  contradicts  the  very 
idea  of  education,  which  idea  finds  its  fulfillment  in 
the  attainment  of  this  state  of  maturity  by  the  pupil. 
Since  the  completion  of  education  cancels  the  original 
inequality  between  the  educator  and  the  pupil,  nothing 
is  more  oppressing,  nay,  revolting  to  the  latter  than  to 
be  excluded  by  a  continued  state  of  dependence  from 
the  enjoyment  of  the  freedom  which  he  has  earned. 

The  opposite  of  this  extreme,  which  protracts  education  beyond 
its  proper  time  and  produces  this  state  of  inward  revolt,  is  the  undue 


50       THE  GENERAL  IDEA  OF  EDUCATION. 

hastening  of  the  emancipation. — The  question  whether  one  is  pre- 
pared for  freedom  has  been  often  opened  in  politics.  When  any  peo- 
ple have  gone  so  far  as  to  ask  this  question  themselves,  it  is  no  longer 
a  question  whether  that  people  are  prepared  for  it,  for  without  the 
consciousness  of  freedom  this  question  would  never  have  occurred  to 
them. 

[The  absolute  limit  of  education  is  the  positive  limit  (see  §  46), 
beyond  which  the  youth  passes  into  freedom  from  the  school,  as 
a  necessary  instrumentality  for  further  culture.] 

§  50.  Although  teachers  must  now  leave  the  youth 
free,  the  necessity  of  further  culture  for  him  still  re- 
mains. But  it  will  no  longer  come  directly  through 
them.  Their  prearranged,  pattern-making  work  is  now 
supplanted  by  self -education.  Each  sketches  for  him- 
self an  ideal  to  which  in  his  life  he  seeks  to  approximate 
every  day. 

In  the  work  of  self-culture  one  friend  can  help  another  by  advice 
and  example  ;  but  he  can  not  educate,  for  education  presupposes  in- 
equality of  acquirement  and  authority. — The  necessities  of  human 
nature  produce  societies  in  which  equals  seek  to  influence  each  other 
in  a  pedagogical  way,  since  they  establish  certain  grades  or  orders 
based  on  steps  of  culture.  They  presuppose  education  in  the  ordi- 
nary sense.  But  they  wish  to  bring  about  education  in  a  higher 
sense,  and  therefore  they  veil  the  last  form  of  their  ideal  in  the  mys- 
tery of  secrecy. — To  one  who  lives  on  contented  with  himself  and 
without  the  impulse  toward  self -culture,  unless  his  unconcern  springs 
from  his  belonging  to  a  savage  state  of  society,  the  Germans  give 
the  name  of  Philistine,  and  he  is  always  repulsive  to  the  student 
who  is  intoxicated  with  an  ideal. 

[The  prearranged  pattern-making  work  of  the  school  is  now 
done,  but  self-education  may  and  should  go  on  indefinitely,  and 
will  go  on  if  the  education  of  the  school  has  really  arrived  at  its 
"  absolute  limit " — i.  e.,  has  fitted  the  pupil  for  self-education. 
Emancipation  from  the  school  does  not  emancipate  one  from 
learning  through  his  fellow-men.  Man's  spiritual  life  is  one 
depending  upon  co-operation  with  his  fellow-men.  Each  must 
avail  himself  of  the  experience  of  his  fellow-men,  and  in  turn 


THE  LIMITS  OF  EDUCATION.  51 

communicate  his  own  experience  to  the  common  fund  of  the 
race.  Thus  each  lives  the  life  of  the  whole,  and  all  live  for 
each.  School-education  gives  the  pupil  the  instrumentalities 
with  which  to  enable  him  to  participate  in  this  fund  of  experi- 
ence— this  common  life  of  the  race.  After  school-education 
comes  the  still  more  valuable  education,  which,  however,  with- 
out the  school,  would  be  in  a  great  measure  impossible.] 


SECOND    PART. 

THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 


> 


SECOND    PART. 

THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 


INTKODTJCTIOK 

§  51.  EDUCATION  in  general  consists  in  the  develop- 
ment in  man  of  his  inborn  theoretical  and  practical  ra- 
tionality ;  it  takes  on  the  form  of  labor,  which  changes 
that  state  or  condition,  which  appears  at  first  only  as  a 
mere  thought,  into  a  fixed  habit,  and  transfigures  in- 
dividuality into  a  worthy  humanity.  Education  ends 
in  that  emancipation  of  the  youth  which  places  him  on 
his  own  feet.  The  special  elements  which  form  the 
concrete  content  of  all  education  in  general  are  the  life, 
cognition,  and  will  of  man.  Without  life  mind  has  no 
phenomenal  reality ;  without  cognition,  no  genuine — 
i.  e.,  conscious — will ;  and  without  will,  no  self -confirma- 
tion of  life  and  of  cognition.  It  is  true  that  these  three 
elements  are  in  real  existence  inseparable,  and  continu- 
ally exhibit  their  interdependence.  But  none  the  less 
on  this  account  do  they  themselves  prescribe  their  own 
succession,  and  they  have  a  relative  and  periodical  as- 
cendency over  each  other.  In  infancy,  up  to  the  fifth, 
or  sixth  year,  the  purely  physical  development  takes  the 

precedence;  childhood  is  the  time  of  learning,  in  a 

8 


56  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

proper  sense,  an  act  by  which  the  child  gains  for  him- 
self the  picture  of  the  world,  such  as  mature  minds, 
through  experience  and  insight,  have  painted  it ;  and, 
finally,  youth  is  the  transition  period  to  practical  activity, 
to  which  the  self-determination  of  the  will  must  give 
the  first  impulse. 

[Education  is  the  development  of  reason  innate  in  man — 
theoretical  as  intellect,  practical  as  will-power.  It  is  a  labor 
that  changes  an  ideal  into  a  real,  making  what  is  potential  into 
an  actual ;  transfiguring  the  "  natural "  man,  so  to  speak,  into  a 
spiritual  man.  Education  forms  "habits."  It  develops  ideal 
human  nature  into  real  human  nature  by  means  of  this  forma- 
tion of  habits.  (Play  differs  from  labor  in  this,  that  it  does  not 
seek  to  transform  an  ideal  into  a  real,  but  to  make  a  semblance 
of  contradiction  between  the  ideal  and  real ;  it  makes  a  reality 
seem  to  be  what  it  is  not.)  There  are  three  special  elements  in 
man,  each  of  which  needs  education :  these  are  life  (bodily  or- 
ganism), cognition  (knowing  faculty  or  intellect),  and  will.  To 
some  extent  there  is  a  succession  of  periods  based  on  this  dis- 
,  tinction :  (1)  the  period  of  nurture,  lasting  till  the  sixth  yearr 
or  during  infancy,  in  which  the  education  of  the  body  is  more 
important  than  the  education  of  the  mind;  (2)  the  period  of 
the  school,  lasting  through  childhood — say  to  fourteen  years — 
in  which  general  or  intellectual  education  is  most  important ;  (3) 
the  period  of  youth — from  fourteen  to  eighteen — in  which  the 
most  important  education  is  the  specializing  of  the  practical  ap- 
plication of  knowledge  and  strength  to  particular  forms  of  duty, 
hence  will-education.  While  these  periods  are  thus  distin- 
guished by  the  relative  importance  of  the  three  different  disci- 
plines, it  is  essential  that  no  one  of  these  disciplines  shall  be 
neglected  in  any  period.] 

§  52.  The  classification  of  the  special  elements  of 
education  is  hence  very  simple:  (1)  the  physical,  (2) 
the  intellectual,  (3)  the  practical  (in  the  sense  of  will- 
education).  We  sometimes  apply  to  these  the  words 
orthobiotics,  didactics,  and  pragmatics. 


INTRODUCTION.  57 

^Esthetic  training  constitutes  only  an  element  of  intellectual 
education,  just  as  social,  moral,  and  religious  training  form  elements 
of  practical  (or  will)  education.  But  because  these  latter  elements 
concern  themselves  with  the  action  of  the  individual  upon  the  ex- 
ternal world,  the  name  "  pragmatics  "  is  appropriate.  In  this  sphere, 
education  (Padagogik)  should  coincide  with  politics,  ethics,  and  re- 
ligion. But  it  is  distinguished  from  them  through  the  skill  with 
which  it  puts  into  practice  the  problems  of  the  other  two  (life  and 
cognition).  The  scientific  arrangement  of  these  ideas  must  therefore 
show  that  the  former,  as  the  more  abstract,  constitutes  the  condition, 
and  the  latter,  as  the  more  concrete,  the  ground  of  the  former,  which 
is  presupposed ;  and  in  consequence  of  this  it  is  itself  their  principle 
and  teleological  presupposition,  just  as  in  man  the  will  presupposes 
the  cognition,  and  cognition  life ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  life,  in  a 
deeper  sense,  must  presuppose  cognition,  and  cognition  will. 

[The  classification  in  pedagogics  is  based  on  the  distinction 
of  the  three  elements  in  man  that  require  education :  (1)  Physi- 
cal (correct  living  =  orthobiotics) ;  (2)  intellectual  (correct  per- 
ceiving, knowing,  and  thinking  =  didactics) ;  (3)  practical  (cor- 
rect action,  proper  habits  =  pragmatics).  -^Esthetic  training,  or 
the  sense  for  the  appreciation  and  production  of  the  beautiful, 
falls,  in  a  threefold  division,  into  the  second — into  theoretic 
education.  Social,  moral,  and  religious  training  belong  to  the 
third  division,  as  they  concern  the  will  and  its  utterance  in  deeds. 
"  Pragmatics  "  signifies  the  doctrine  of  human  deeds,  and  in- 
cludes the  spheres  of  ethics,  politics,  and  religion.  (There  may 
be  defined  a  fivefold  system  of  education,  basing  the  distinction 
on  the  institutions  of  civilization  :  (a)  Nurture  =  the  education 
of  the  family ;  (b)  the  school,  or  education  into  the  convention- 
alities of  intelligence  ;  (c)  the  art,  trade,  or  profession  that  forms 
the  vocation  in  life  =  the  education  of  civil  society ;  (d)  the 
political  education  into  citizenship,  resulting  from  obedience  to 
laws  and  participation  in  making  and  sustaining  them  ;  (e)  re- 
ligious education.  These  five  forms  of  education  depend  on  (a) 
the  family,  (b)  the  school,  (c)  civil  society,  (d)  the  State,  (e) 
the  Church.  The  school  is  properly  a  transition  between  the 
family  and  civil  society,  and  forms  the  institution  of  education 
par  excellence.  Hence,  while  education,  very  properly,  is  defined 
so  as  to  include  all  of  human  life,  there  is  a  period  specially 
characterized  as  "  education  "  which  transpires  in  the  school,  a 


58  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

special  institution  that  partakes  of  the  character  of  the  family 
on  the  one  hand,  and  of  civil  society  on  the  other.  In  the  school, 
of  course,  there  should  be  some  attention  paid  to  all  spheres  of 
education,  but  its  main  business  should  be  the  acquisition  "  of 
the  picture  of  the  world  such  as  mature  minds  through  experi- 
ence and  insight  have  painted  it "  (see  §  51  near  the  end),  or,  in 
other  words,  conventional  items  of  information,  insights  into 
laws  and  principles,  and  the  elementary  processes  of  their  com- 
bination. This  makes  the  "view  of  the  world"  which  each 
civilized  human  being  is  supposed  to  possess.  It  is  important 
to  know  the  exact  province  of  the  school,  and  to  see  that  it  is 
only  one  of  the  five  forms  of  education  that  civilization  provides 
for  man.  Much  of  the  carping  criticism  leveled  against  schools, 
in  times  of  financial  distress  or  general  social  depression,  is 
based  on  the  assumption  that  the  province  of  the  school  is  all 
education  instead  of  a  small  but  very  important  fraction  of  it. 
The  school  may  do  its  share  of  correct  education,  but  it  can  not 
correct  the  effects  of  neglect  of  family  nurture,  nor  insure  its 
youth  against  evil  that  will  follow  if  civil  society  furnishes  no 
steady  employment,  no  opportunity  for  settled  industry,  and 
the  state  no  training  into  consciousness  of  higher  manhood  by 
its  just  laws,  and  by  offering  to  the  citizen  a  participation  in 
the  political  process  of  legislation  and  administration,  carefully 
guarding  its  forms  so  that  its  politics  does  not  furnish  a  train- 
ing in  corruption.  Nor  can  the  school  insure  the  future  of  its 
pupils  unless  the  Church  does  its  part  in  the  education  of  the 
individuals  of  the  community.)  "  The  scientific  arrangement  of 
these  ideas  " — i.  e.,  life,  intellect,  and  will — "  must  show  that  the 
former,  as  more  abstract,  constitute  the  conditions  " — i.  e.,  life 
is  the  condition  of  intellect,  and  both  intellect  and  life  the  con- 
ditions of  will — while  "the  latter,  as  more  concrete,  are  the 
ground  of  the  former  " — i.  e.,  intellect  is  the  ground  of  life,  or, 
in  other  words,  its  final  cause,  and  so  will  is  the  ground  and 
final  cause  of  intellect.  Intellect  contains  all  that  life  contains, 
and  much  more — namely :  While  life  realizes  its  totality  of  spe- 
cies only  in  many  individuals,  and  each  individual  is  a  partial 
and  special  half  of  the  species  as  male  or  female,  the  intellect 
as  consciousness  is  subject  and  object  in  one,  and  each  indi- 
vidual intellect  is  potentially  the  entire  species— each  thinking 
being  can  think  all  the  thoughts  of  the  greatest  thinkers  of  the 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION.  59 

race.  So,  will  contains  all  that  intellect  contains,  and  more. 
For  what  is  potential  in  intellect  (the  identity  of  subject  and 
object  of  thought)  is  real  in  the  will.  The  will  makes  objective 
its  internal  subjective  forms,  and  in  its  highest  ethical  activity 
it  becomes  conscious  freedom.] 


CHAPTER  I. 

PHYSICAL   EDUCATION. 

§  53.  THE  art  of  living  rightly  is  based  upon  a  com- 
prehension of  the  process  of  life.  Life  is  the  restless 
dialectic  process  which  ceaselessly  transforms  the  inor- 
ganic into  the  organic,  and  at  the  same  time  produces 
the  inorganic,  and  separates  from  itself  whatever  part 
of  its  food  has  not  been  assimilated,  and  that  which  has 
become  dead  and  burned  out.  The  organism  is  healthy 
when  it  corresponds  to  this  idea  of  the  dialectic  process 
of  a  life  which  moves  up  and  down,  inward  and  out- 
ward ;  of  formation  and  reformation ;  of  organizing  and 
disorganizing.  All  the  rules  for  physical  education,  or 
of  hygiene,  are  derived  from  this  conception. 

[The  rules  of  hygiene  are  derived  from  an  insight  into  the 
twofold  process  of  assimilation  and  elimination  which  goes  on 
in  the  living  organism  with  relation  to  the  inorganic  substances 
which  it  uses.] 

§  54.  It  follows  from  this  that  the  change  of  the 
relatively  inorganic  to  the  organic  is  going  on  not  only 
in  the  organism  as  a  whole,  but  also  in  its  every  organ 
and  in  every  part  of  every  organ ;  and  that  the  organic, 
as  soon  as  it  has  attained  its  highest  point  of  energy,  is 


60  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

again  degraded  to  the  inorganic  and  thrown  out.  Every 
cell  has  its  history.  Activity  is,  therefore,  not  contra- 
dictory to  the  organism,  but  favors  in  it  the  natural 
progressive  and  regressive  metamorphosis.  This  process 
can  go  on  harmoniously — that  is,  the  organism  can  be  in 
health — only  when  not  merely  the  whole  organism,  but 
each  special  organ,  is  allowed,  after  its  productive  activ- 
ity, the  corresponding  rest  and  recreation  necessary  for 
its  self-renewal.  We  have  this  periodicity  exemplified 
in  waking  and  sleeping,  also  in  exhalation  and  inhalation, 
excretion  and  taking  in  of  material.  "When  we  have 
discovered  the  relative  antagonism  of  the  organs  and 
their  periodicity,  we  have  found  the  secret  of  the  peren- 
nial renewal  of  life. 

[Perpetual  change  goes  on  in  the  living  organism,  converting 
the  inorganic  into  organic  tissue  and  then  reconverting  it.  This 
alternation  is  the  basis  of  the  demand  for  the  alternation  of  pro- 
ductive activity  with  rest  and  recreation  in  the  whole  physical 
system.] 

§  55.  Fatigue  makes  its  appearance  when  any  organ, 
or  the  organism  in  general,  is  denied  time  for  the  return 
movement  into  itself  and  for  renovation.  It  is  possible 
for  some  one  organ,  without  injury,  as  if  isolated,  to 
exercise  a  great  and  long-continued  activity,  even  to  the 
point  of  fatigue,  while  the  other  organs  rest ;  as,  e.  g., 
the  lungs,  in  speaking,  while  the  other  parts  are  quiet ; 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  well  to  speak  and  run  at  the 
same  time.  The  idea  that  one  can  keep  the  organism 
in  better  condition  by  inactivity  is  an  error  which  rests 
upon  a  mechanical  view  of  life.  Equally  false  is  the 
idea  that  health  depends  upon  the  quantity  and  excel- 
lence of  the  food;  without  the  force  to  assimilate  it, 
it  is  poison  rather  than  nourishment.  True  strength 


DIETETICS.  61 

arises  only  from  activity.     [Mention  of  works  on  hy- 
giene here  is  omitted  in  this  translation.] 

[Fatigue  defined.  It  may  occur  with  the  whole  organism  or 
with  a  part.  The  idea  that  total  rest  is  healthy  is  a  misappre- 
hension. The  organism  requires  alternation  of  rest  and  activity, 
which  alternation  itself  is  activity  because  it  is  change.  Hence, 
"  true  strength  arises  only  from  activity."] 

§  56.  Physical  education,  as  it  concerns  the  repairing, 
the  motor,  or  the  nervous  activities,  is  divided  into  (1) 
dietetics,  (2)  gymnastics,  (3)  sexual  education.  In  real 
life  these  activities  are  scarcely  separable,  but  for  the 
sake  of  exposition  we  must  consider  them  apart.  In  the 
regular  development  of  the  human  being,  moreover,  the 
repairing  system  has  a  relative  precedence  to  the  motor 
system,  and  the  latter  to  the  sexual  maturity.  But  edu- 
cation can  treat  of  these  ideas  only  with  reference  to 
the  infant,  the  child,  and  the  youth. 

[Physical  education  treats  of  (a)  the  repairing  activity  or  nu- 
trition, (b)  the  motor  or  muscular  activity,  and  (c)  the  nervous 
activity,  as  far  as  they  concern  children  and  youth. 


CHAPTER  H. 

(A.)    DIETETICS. 

§  57.  DIETETICS  is  the  art  of  sustaining  the  normal 
repair  of  the  organism.  Since  this  organism  is,  in  the 
concrete,  an  individual  one,  the  general  principles  of 
dietetics  must,  in  their  manner  of  application,  vary  with 
the  sex,  the  age,  the  temperament,  the  occupation,  and 
the  other  conditions  of  the  individual.  Education  as  a 


62  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

science  can  only  go  over  its  general  principles,  and  these 
can  be  named  briefly.  If  we  attempt  to  speak  of  de- 
tails, we  fall  easily  into  triviality.  So  very  important 
to  the  whole  life  of  man  is  the  proper  care  of  his  physi- 
cal nature  during  the  first  stages  of  its  development, 
that  the  science  of  education  must  not  omit  to  enumer- 
ate the  various  systems  which  different  people,  accord- 
ing to  their  time,  locality,  and  culture,  have  made  for 
themselves ;  many,  it  is  true,  embracing  some  preposter- 
ous ideas,  but  in  general  never  devoid  of  justification  in 
their  time. 

[Dietetics  defined.  Details  here  are  trivial.] 
[§§  58,  59,  60,  61,  62,  63,  64,  relating  to  diet,  omitted. 
The  following  is  a  brief  summary  of  the  contents : 
§§  58,  59,  60,  61,  treat  of  food  for  infants.  §  62,  why 
children  need  much  sleep.  §  63  treats  of  clothing  of 
children.] 

§  64.  Cleanliness  is  a  virtue  to  which  children  should 
be  accustomed  for  the  sake  of  their  physical  well-being, 
as  well  as  because,  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  it  is  of  the 
greatest  significance.  Cleanliness  will  not  endure  that 
things  shall  be  deprived  of  their  proper  individuality 
through  the  elemental  chaos.  It  retains  each  as  distin- 
guished from  every  other.  While  it  makes  necessary 
to  man  pure  air,  cleanliness  of  surroundings,  of  clothing, 
and  of  his  body,  it  develops  in  him  a  sense  by  which 
he  perceives  accurately  the  particular  limits  of  being  in 
general. 

[Cleanliness  means  "  a  place  for  everything  and  everything  in 
its  place."  To  take  a  thing  out  of  its  proper  relations  is  to  "  de- 
prive it  of  its  proper  individuality,"  and  in  an  "  elemental  chaos '' 
everything  has  lost  its  proper  relations  to  other  things,  and  has 
no  longer  any  use  or  fitness  in  its  existence.] 


GYMNASTICS.  63 

CHAPTER  III. 

(B.)    GYMNASTICS. 

§  65.  GYMNASTICS  is  the  art  of  the  normal  training 
of  the  muscular  system.  The  voluntary  muscles,  which 
are  regulated  by  the  nerves  of  the  brain,  in  distinction 
from  the  involuntary  automatic  muscles  depending  on 
the  spinal  cord,  while  they  are  the  means  of  man's  inter- 
course with  the  external  world,  at  the  same  time  react 
upon  the  automatic  muscles  in  digestion  and  sensation. 
Since  the  movement  of  the  muscular  fibers  consists  in 
the  alternation  of  contraction  and  expansion,  it  follows 
that  gymnastics  must  bring  about  a  change  of  movement 
which  shall  both  contract  and  expand  the  muscles. 

[Gymnastics. — The  voluntary  and  involuntary  muscles  distin- 
guished :  the  voluntary  muscles  form  the  means  of  communica- 
tion with  the  external  world,  and  also  react  on  the  automatic 
functions  of  digestion,  sensation,  etc.  Gymnastics  seeks  to  de- 
velop the  voluntary  muscles  in  a  normal  manner,  and  through 
these  indirectly  to  affect  favorably  the  development  of  the  other 
bodily  systems  and  processes.] 

§  66.  The  system  of  gymnastic  exercise  of  any  na- 
tion corresponds  always  to  its  mode  of  fighting.  So  long 
as  this  consists  in  the  personal  struggle  of  a  hand-to-hand 
contest,  gymnastics  will  seek  to  increase  as  much  as 
possible  individual  strength  and  adroitness.  As  soon  as 
the  far-reaching  missiles  projected  from  fire-arms  be- 
come the  center  of  all  the  operations  of  war,  the  indi- 
vidual is  lost  in  a  body  of  men,  out  of  which  he  emerges 
only  relatively  in  sharp-shooting,  in  the  charge,  in  close 
contests,  and  in  the  retreat.  Because  of  this  incorpora- 
tion of  the  individual  in  the  one  great  whole,  and  because 


64:  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

of  the  resulting  unimportance  of  personal  daring,  gym- 
nastics can  never  again  be  what  it  was  in  ancient  times. 
Besides  this,  the  subjectiveness  of  the  modern  spirit  is 
too  great  to  allow  it  to  devote  so  much  attention  to  the 
care  of  the  body,  or  so  much  time  to  the  admiration  of 
its  beauty,  as  was  given  by  the  Greeks. 

The  Turner  societies  and  Turner-halls  in. Germany  belong  to 
the  period  of  subjective  enthusiasm  of  the  German  student  popula- 
tion, and  had  a  political  significance.  At  present,  they  have  been 
brought  back  to  their  proper  place  as  an  educational  means,  and 
they  are  of  great  value,  especially  in  large  cities.  Among  the  mount- 
ains, and  in  rural  districts,  special  arrangements  for  bodily  exercise 
are  less  necessary,  for  the  matter  takes  care  of  itself.  The  situation 
and  the  instinct  for  play  help  to  foster  it.  In  great  cities,  however, 
the  houses  are  often  destitute  of  halls  or  open  places  where  the  chil- 
dren can  take  exercise  in  their  leisure  moments.  In  these  cities, 
therefore,  there  must  be  some  gymnastic  hall  where  the  sense  of  fel- 
lowship may  be  developed.  Gymnastics  are  not  so  essential  for 
girls.  In  its  place,  dancing  is  sufficient,  and  gymnastic  exercise 
should  be  employed  for  them  only  where  there  exists  any  special 
weakness  or  deformity,  when  it  may  be  used  as  a  restorative  or  pre- 
servative. They  are  not  to  become  Amazons.  The  boy,  on  the  con- 
trary, needs  to  acquire  the  feeling  of  good-fellowship.  It  is  true 
that  the  school  develops  this  in  a  measure,  but  not  fully  and  simply, 
because  in  school  the  standing  of  the  boy  is  determined  through  his 
intellectual  ambition.  The  college  youth  will  not  take  much  inter- 
est in  special  gymnastics  unless  he  can  gain  distinction  in  it.  Run- 
ning, leaping,  climbing,  and  lifting,  are  too  tame  for  their  more 
mature  spirits.  They  can  take  a  lively  interest  only  in  the  exercises 
which  have  a  warlike  character.  "With  the  Prussians,  and  some  other 
German  states,  gymnastic  training  is  provided  for  in  the  military 
training. 

[Gymnastics  affected  by  the  national  military  drill.  The  an- 
cient tribes  and  nations  found  special  bodily  training  indispen- 
sable to  success  in  war,  and  even  to  national  preservation.  Gun- 
powder and  improved  fire-arms  have  almost  rendered  gymnas- 
tics obsolete — the  successful  army,  other  things  equal,  being  the 
one  composed  of  men  thoroughly  disciplined  in  manoeuvres,  and 


GYMNASTICS.  65 

possessed  individually  of  tact  and  versatility  necessary  to  ma- 
nipulate the  destructive  fire-arms  now  used.  The  Greeks  (see 
§§  204-216)  paid  so  much  attention  to  pure  gymnastics  because 
they  worshiped  the  beautiful  as  the  highest  manifestation  of  the 
divine,  and  therefore  looked  upon  their  own  physical  perfection 
as  the  highest  object  of  life.  The  favorite  exercises  with  our 
students  are  boating,  ball-playing,  bicycle-riding,  etc.,  rather 
than  boxing,  fencing,  wrestling,  and  "  exercises  which  have  a 
warlike  character,"  as  Rosenkranz  enumerated  them  in  1840.] 

§  67.  The  fundamental  idea  of  gymnastics  must  al- 
ways be  that  the  spirit  shall  rule  over  its  body  and  make 
this  an  energetic  and  docile  servant  of  its  will.  Strength 
and  adroitness  must  unite  and  become  confident  skill. 
Strength,  carried  to  its  extreme,  produces  the  athlete ; 
adroitness,  to  its  extreme,  the  acrobat.  Education  must 
avoid  both.  All  gigantic  strength,  as  well  as  acrobatic 
skill,  fit  only  for  display,  must  be  discouraged  and  so  too 
must  be  the  idea  of  teaching  gymnastics  with  the  motive 
of  utility ;  e.  g.,  that  by  swimming  one  may  save  his  life 
when  he  falls  into  the  water,  etc.  Among  other  things, 
utility  may  also  be  a  consequence ;  but  the  principle  in 
general  must  always  be  the  necessity  of  the  spirit  of 
subjecting  its  bodily  organism  to  the  condition  of  a  per- 
fect instrument,  so  that  it  may  ever  find  it  equal  to  the 
execution  of  its  will. 

[Gymnastics,  therefore,  in  modern  times  must  aim  chiefly  at 
developing  the  body  for  the  sake  of  physical  strength  and  en- 
durance, with  a  view  to  the  demands  of  useful  industry  and 
mental  culture  on  the  bodily  health  and  vigor.  Health  requires 
harmonious  development ;  the  exercises  must  develop  the  parts 
of  the  body  so  as  not  to  produce  disproportion.  The  result  of 
gymnastics  is  to  give  the  mind  control  over  the  body  as  a  whole 
— the  will  interpenetrates,  as  it  were,  the  various  organs,  and  by 
this  means  the  conscious  mind  can  re-enforce  the  automatic 
functions  of  the  body ;  the  will-power  can  to  a  certain  degree 
even  ward  off  disease.] 


66  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

§  68.  Gymnastic  exercises  form  a  series  from  simple 
to  compound.  There  seems  to  be  so  much  arbitrari- 
ness in  plays  and  games  that  it  is  always  very  agreeable 
to  the  mind  to  find,  on  nearer  inspection,  some  rational 
order.  The  movements  are  (1)  of  the  lower,  (2)  of  the 
upper  extremities ;  (3)  of  the  whole  body,  with  relative 
predominance,  now  of  the  upper,  now  of  the  lower  ex- 
tremities. We  distinguish,  therefore,  foot,  arm,  and 
trunk  movements. 

[Gymnastic  exercises  classified :  (1)  of  the  lower  extremities : 
(a)  walking,  (b)  running,  (c)  leaping  (including  varieties  and 
modifications,  such  as  walking  on  stilts,  skating,  dancing,  bal- 
ancing, bicycle-riding,  etc.);  (2)  of  the  upper  extremities:  (a) 
lifting,  (b)  swinging,  (c)  throwing  (including  also  the  modifica- 
tions of  climbing,  carrying,  pole  and  bar  exercises,  quoits,  ball 
and  nine-pin  playing,  rowing,  etc.) ;  (3)  of  the  whole  body :  (a) 
swimming,  (b;  riding,  (c)  fighting.  Foot,  arm,  and  trunk  move- 
ments. Such  games  as  base-ball,  and  such  athletic  exercise  as 
rowing  are  practiced  as  whole-body  movements.] 

§  69.  (1)  The  first  series  of  foot-movements  is  the 
most  important,  and  conditions  the  carriage  of  all  the 
rest  of  the  body.  They  are  (a)  walking ;  (5)  running ; 
(c)  leaping:  each  of  these  being  capable  of  modifica- 
tions, as  the  high  and  the  low  leap,  the  prolonged  and 
the  quick  run.  Sometimes  we  give  to  these  different 
names,  according  to  the  means  used,  as  walking  on 
stilts ;  skating ;  leaping  with  a  staff,  or  by  means  of  the 
hands,  as  vaulting.  Dancing  is  only  the  art  of  the 
graceful  mingling  of  these  movements. 

§  TO.  (2)  The  second  series  includes  the  arm-move- 
ments, and  it  repeats  also  the  movements  of  the  first 
series.  It  includes  (a)  lifting ;  (5)  swinging ;  (c)  throw- 
ing. All  pole  and  bar  practice  comes  under  lifting, 


GYMNASTICS.  67 

also  climbing  and  carrying.  Under  throwing,  come 
quoits,  and  ball-throwing,  and  nine-pin  playing.  All 
these  movements  are  distinguished  from  each  other,  not 
only  quantitatively  but  also  qualitatively,  in  the  position 
of  the  stretched  and  bent  muscles ;  e.  g.,  running  is 
something  differsnt  from  quick  walking.  [Omission 
here  of  notes  on  books  relating  to  the  physiology  of  ex- 
ercise.] 

§  71.  (3)  The  third  series,  or  that  of  movements  of 
the  whole  body,  differs  from  the  preceding  two,  which 
prepare  the  way  for  it,  in  this,  that  it  brings  the  organism 
into  contact  with  an  object,  which  it  has  to  overcome 
through  its  own  activity.  This  object  is  sometimes 
an  element,  sometimes  an  animal,  sometimes  a  man. 
Our  divisions  then  are  (a)  swimming ;  (6)  riding ;  (c) 
single  combat  (fencing,  boxing,  wrestling,  etc.).  In 
swimming,  one  must  conquer  the  yielding  liquid  by 
arm  and  foot  movements.  The  resistance  met  on  ac- 
count of  currents  and  waves  may  be  very  great,  but  it 
is  still  that  of  a  will-less  and  passive  object.  But  in 
riding  man  has  to  deal  with  a  self-willed  being  whose 
vitality  calls  forth  not  only  his  strength  but  also  Ms 
intelligence  and  courage.  The  movement  is  therefore 
very  complicated,  and  the  rider  must  be  able  perpetually 
to  individualize  his  activity  according  to  the  circum- 
stances ;  at  the  same  time,  he  must  give  attention  not 
only  to  the  horse,  but  to  the  nature  of  the  ground  and 
the  entire  surroundings.  But  it  is  only  in  the  struggle 
with  men  that  gymnastics  reaches  its  highest  point,  for 
in  this  man  offers  himself  as  a  living  antagonist  to  man 
and  threatens  him  with  danger.  It  is  no  longer  the 
spontaneous  activity  of  an  unreasoning  existence ;  it  is 


68  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

the  resistance  and  attack  of  intelligence  itself  with 
which  he  has  to  deal.  Fencing,  or  single  combat,  is  the 
truly  chivalrous  exercise,  and  this  may  be  combined 
with  horsemanship. 

In  the  single  combat  there  is  found  also  a  qualitative  gradation, 
whence  we  have  three  systems :  (a)  boxing  and  wrestling ;  (6)  fencing 
with  sticks;  and  (c)  rapier  and  broadsword  fencing.  In  the  first, 
which  was  cultivated  to  its  highest  point  among  the  Greeks,  direct 
immediateness  rules.  In  the  boxing  of  the  English,  a  sailor-like 
propensity  of  this  nation,  fighting  with  the  fists  is  still  retained  as  a 
custom.  Fencing  with  a  stick  is  found  among  the  French  mechan- 
ics, the  so-called  compagnons.  Men  often  use  the  cane  in  their  con- 
tests ;  it  is  -a  sort  of  refined  club.  When  we  use  the  sword  or  rapier, 
the  weapon  becomes  deadly.  The  Southern  Europeans  excel  in  the 
use  of  the  rapier,  the  Germans  in  that  of  the  broadsword.  But  the 
art  of  single  combat  is  much  degenerated,  and  the  pistol-duel, 
through  its  increasing  frequency,  proves  this  degeneration. 

NOTE. — The  paragraphs  §  72-V9,  relating  to  sexual  education,  are  de- 
signed for  parents  rather  than  for  teachers,  the  parent  being  the  natural 
educator  of  the  family,  and  sexual  education  relating  to  the  preservation  and 
continuance  of  the  family.  This  chapter  is  accordingly,  for  the  most  part, 
omitted  here.  It  contains  judicious  reflections,  invaluable  to  parents  and 
guardians.— Tr, 


CHAPTER  IV. 

INTELLECTUAL   EDUCATION. 

§  80.  Mens  sana  in  corpore  sano  is  correct  as  a  peda- 
gogical maxim,  but  false  in  the  judgment  of  individual 
cases ;  because  it  is  possible,  on  the  one  hand,  to  have  a 
healthy  mind  in  an  unhealthy  body,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  an  unhealthy  mind  in  a  healthy  body.  Neverthe- 
less, to  strive  after  the  harmony  of  soul  and  body  is  the 
material  condition  of  all  normal  activity.  The  develop- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  69 

ment  of  intelligence  presupposes  physical  health.  Here 
we  are  to  speak  of  the  science  of  the  art  of  teaching, 
technically  called  "  didactics."  This  had  its  presupposi- 
tion on  the  side  of  Nature,  as  was  before  seen,  in  physi- 
cal education,  but  in  the  sphere  of  mind  it  presupposes 
psychology  and  logic.  Instruction  implies  considera- 
tions of  psychology  as  well  as  of  logical  method. 

[Education  has  to  note  bodily  conditions  of  the  mind,  and  to 
prescribe  methods  of  physical  training.  It  has  more  especially 
to  note  also  the  nature  of  mind  and  comprehend  the  science  of 
psychology,  and  prescribe  the  methods  of  developing  the  several 
powers  of  the  mind.  It  has  also  to  study  logic  in  order  to  mas- 
ter the  proper  arrangement  of  studies  and  the  order  of  teaching 
the  several  topics  belonging  under  each  study.] 

(a)  The  Psychological  Presupposition. 

§81.  In  a  complete  system  of  philosophy,  didactics 
could  refer  to  the  conception  of  mind  which  would 
have  there  been  unfolded  in  psychology ;  and  it  must 
appear  as  a  defect  in  scientific  method  if  psychology,  or 
at  least  the  conception  of  the  theoretical  mind,  has  to  be 
treated  again  within  the  science  of  education.  We  must 
take  something  for  granted.  Psychology,  then,  will  here 
be  consulted  no  further  than  is  requisite  to  place  on  a 
sure  basis  the  educational  function  which  relates  to  it. 

[Psychology,  as  a  science,  is  unfolded  within  the  philosophy 
of  spirit  as  an  antecedent  presupposition  of  the  science  of  ethics 
(which  forms  the  third  part  of  the  science  of  spirit,  see  analysis 
and  commentary  to  §  1,  pages  4,  5,  of  this  work).  Hence  the 
philosophy  of  education,  which  belongs  to  ethics  (or  social  sci- 
ence), presupposes  psychology,  and  in  its  proper  place  in  an 
entire  system  might  refer  to  it  as  already  established.  Here,  in 
treating  of  intellectual  education,  we  must  give  an  outline  of  psy- 
chology.] 


70  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

§  82.  To  education  the  conception  of  attention  is 
the  most  important  of  all  those  derived  from  psychol- 
ogy. Mind  is  essentially  self-activity.  Nothing  exists 
for  it  which  it  does  not  posit  as  its  own.  We  hear  it 
often  said  that  outside  conditions  make  an  impression 
on  the  mind,  but  this  is  an  error.  Mind  lets  nothing 
act  upon  it  unless  it  has  rendered  itself  receptive  to  it. 
Without  this  preparatory  self -excitation  the  object  does 
not  really  penetrate  it,  and  it  passes  by  the  object  un- 
consciously or  indifferently.  The  horizon  of  perception 
changes  for  each  person  with  his  peculiarities  and  cult- 
ure. Attention  is  the  adjusting  of  the  observer  to  the 
object  in  order  to  seize  it  in  its  unity  and  diversity. 
Relatively,  the  observer  allows,  for  a  moment,  his  rela- 
tion to  all  other  surroundings  to  cease,  so  that  he  may 
establish  a  relation  with  this  one.  "Without  this  essen- 
tially spontaneous  activity,  nothing  exists  for  the  mind. 
All  result  in  teaching  and  learning  depends  upon  the 
clearness  and  strength  with  which  distinctions  are  made, 
and  the  saying,  fiene  qui  distinguit  bene  docet,  applies 
as  well  to  the  pupil. 

[The  conception  of  attention — the  most  important  one  in 
pedagogics.  Nothing  exists  for  the  mind  unless  the  mind  gives 
attention  to  it — i.  e.,  voluntarily  entertains  it.  Attention  is  self- 
activity,  not  a  passivity  of  the  mind.  It  is  the  will  acting  upon 
the  intellect,  and  hence  a  combination  of  intellect  and  will.  Out 
of  the  infinitely  manifold  objects  before  the  senses — each  object 
is  capable  of  endless  subdivision,  and  there  is  no  part  so  small 
that  it  does  not  possess  variety  and  the  possibility  of  further 
subdivision — attention  selects  one  special  field  or  province,  and 
refuses  to  be  diverted  from  it.  It  neglects  all  else  and  returns 
again  and  again  from  the  borders  of  the  field  of  attention  and 
takes  note  of  the  relation  of  the  surrounding  objects  to  the  ob- 
ject of  special  attention.  It  makes  it  the  essential  thing,  and 
considers  everything  else  only  as  related  to  it. 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  71 

It  is  interesting  to  note  how  the  higher  faculties  (so-called 
"  faculties  " — one  must  not,  however,  suppose  these  faculties  as 
isolated  "  properties  "  of  the  mind,  existing  side  by  side,  like 
properties  of  a  thing)  all  originate  from  the  process  of  attention ; 
they  are  higher  powers  or  "  potencies  "  of  attention.  Isaac  New- 
ton ascribed  his  superiority  to  other  men  in  intellectual  power 
simply  to  the  greater  power  of  attention.  Attention  appears : 
first,  as  a  mere  power  of  isolating  one  object  from  others — a 
power  of  concentration  upon  it  to  the  exclusion  of  others ;  sec- 
ondly, it  discriminates  distinctions  within  the  object  or  analyzes 
it :  thus  analysis  is  continued  attention — the  second  power  or 
potence  of  attention ;  thirdly,  it  seizes  again  upon  one  of  the 
distinctions  found  by  analysis,  and  becomes  abstraction;  ab- 
straction might  be  named  the  third  power  or  potence  of  atten- 
tion ;  fourthly,  the  attention  may  be  directed  to  essential  rela- 
tions of  the  elements  found  by  analysis  and  abstraction — their 
essential  relations  to  each  other.  This  is  a  process  of  synthetic 
thought,  a  grasping-together,  a  comprehension — a  higher  activ- 
ity of  mind — a  fourth  potence  of  the  power  of  attention.  It  is  the 
most  important  matter  in  psychology,  this  process  of  synthesis, 
through  necessary  relation.  To  find  that  one  object  of  atten- 
tion, A,  involves  another,  B  (i.  e.,  possesses  essential  relation  to 
it,  such  that  A  can  not  exist  without  B)  is  to  find  a  necessary 
synthesis.  It  is  to  discover  that  instead  of  A  by  itself,  or  B  by 
itself,  there  is  one  existence  having  two  phases  to  it,  one  phase 
being  A,  and  the  other  phase  being  B.  It  is  a  finding  of  one  in 
place  of  two,  and  is  a  synthetic  act  of  mind.  The  synthesis  is 
not  an  arbitrary  one.  It  is  a  discovery  of  truth :  A  and  B  were 
really  two  aspects  of  one  and  the  same  being  which  we  may  call 
A  B,  but  they  seemed  to  be  independent.  The  process  of  atten- 
tion, up  to  its  fourth  power,  is  thus  an  ascent  of  cognition  from 
seeming  to  being.  The  perception  of  dependence  ("  essential  re- 
lation "  is  dependence)  is  the  perception  of  synthesis,  and  belongs 
to  the  activity  of  comprehension.  Reflection,  as  a  mental  activ- 
ity (or  "  faculty "),  is  the  process  of  discovering  relations  and 
dependencies  among  objects — hence  it  is  a  stage  of  synthesis — 
belonging  to  what  we  call  here  the  "  fourth  power  of  attention." 
The  student  of  educational  psychology  should  follow  out  this 
mode  of  exploring  the  mind,  and  define  for  himself  all  of  the 
so-called  "  faculties  "  and  mental  acts,  in  terms  of  attention.  He 


72  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

must  note,  too,  that  the  act  of  attention  is  an  act  of  the  mind 
directed  upon  itself,  the  will  controlling  the  intellect,  because  it 
confines  its  own  activity  (i.  e.,  the  perception  in  general)  to  a 
special  field),  i.  e.,  makes  it  a  perception  of  a  special  object  to  the 
exclusion  of  others).  This  synthesis  is,  as  just  remarked,  the 
most  important  theme  of  psychology — it  is  also  the  most  won- 
derful— a  veritable  fountain  of  surprise.  For  the  strangest  thing 
to  learn  in  psychology  is  that  the  process  of  reflection  (the  direc- 
tion of  the  mind  in  upon  itself)  discovers  the  truth  about  the 
objects  or  things  in  the  world.  The  first  activity  of  sense-per- 
ception notices  objects  as  independent  of  each  other,  as  having 
no  essential  relations.  Reflection,  or  attention  in  its  higher 
powers,  discovers  necessary  relations,  and  forms  more  adequate 
ideas  of  the  truth.  Isaac  Newton  saw  the  sun  and  planets  as 
one  gravitating  whole — a  system — and  his  knowledge  certainly 
came  nearer  the  truth  than  did  the  knowledge  of  previous  astron- 
omers who  merely  knew  the  sun  and  planets  in  their  separate 
existence.  In  going  into  the  truth  of  objects  the  mind  goes 
into  itself  at  the  same  time.  Psychology  points  backward  to 
the  great  fact  that  reason  made  both  the  world  and  the  human 
intellect.] 

§  83.  Attention,  depending  as  it  does  on  the  self- 
determination  of  the  observer,  can  therefore  be  im- 
proved, and  the  pupil  made  attentive,  by  the  educator. 
Education  must  accustom  him  to  an  exact,  rapid,  and 
many-sided  attention,  so  that  at  the  first  contact  with 
an  object  he  may  grasp  it  sufficiently  and  truly,  and  that 
it  shall  not  be  necessary  for  him  always  to  be  changing 
his  impressions  concerning  it.  The  twilight  and  par- 
tialness  of  intelligence  which  force  a  pupil  always  to 
new  corrections  because  he  has  all  along  failed  to  give 
entire  attention  must  not  be  tolerated. 

[Attention  (depending  as  it  does  upon  the  voluntary  powers 
of  the  mind)  can  be  developed  or  educated.  (The  fact  that  the 
child  is  capable  of  exercising  his  will-power  on  his  intellect  is 
the  fundamental  fact  that  makes  all  intellectual  education  pos- 
sible. There  is  no  intellect,  strictly  speaking,  until  the  will  has 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  73 

combined  with  the  perception.)  Self-determination  or  self -activ- 
ity is  the  characteristic  principle  of  life  or  living  being.  Related 
to  itself  it  becomes  consciousness.  By  new  relations  to  itself  it 
develops  the  mental  orders  or  stages  of  thinking  (perception, 
representation,  understanding,  reason,  as  described  in  the  com- 
mentary to  the  preceding  section).  Aristotle  (in  his  book  on  the 
Categories)  distinguishes  between  first  and  second  substances 
(ova-tai)  referring  to  the  object  of  perception  (this  animal  or 
thing)  and  the  object  of  the  intellect  (animal  or  thing  as  general 
concept).  By  the  Arabians  (Avicenna)  this  doctrine  becomes  a 
psychological  doctrine  of  first  and  second  intention  of  the  mind 
(intentio  animi).  With  the  first  intention  we  perceive  objects 
of  sense  or  "primary  substances";  with  the  second  intention 
we  perceive  universal  objects  or  "  second  substances."  "  Inten- 
tion "  here  signifies  the  act  of  attention  or  the  directing  inward 
of  the  intellect  by  the  will  upon  its  own  processes,  so  that  the 
process  of  the  "  first  intention  "  becomes  the  object  of  the  "  sec- 
ond intention."  This  wonderful  insight  is  an  anticipation  of 
Fichte's  modification  of  the  Kantian  philosophy.  In  the  "  Science 
of  Knowledge  "  (Wissenschaftslehre)  Fichte  has  laid  the  basis 
for  the  only  true  psychology  by  a  deduction  of  the  main  func- 
tions of  mind  from  self -activity  as  Ego.  The  intellect  and  the 
will  are  discriminated :  the  forms  of  sense-perception  (time  and 
space),  the  categories  of  the  intellect  (causality  and  substantiality), 
the  principles  of  the  will  (the  moral  ideas  of  duty  and  virtue).] 

§  84.  We  learn  from  psychology  that  mind  does  not 
consist  of  distinct  faculties,  but  that  what  we  choose  to 
call  so  are  only  different  activities  of  the  same  power. 
Each  one  is  just  as  essential  as  the  other,  on  which  ac- 
count education  must  grant  to  each  faculty  its  claim  to 
the  same  fostering  care.  Although  we  construe  the 
axiom  a  potiorifit  denominatio  quite  correctly  to  mean 
that  man  is  distinguished  from  animals  by  thought,  and 
by  will  mediated  by  thought  [i.  e.,  will-activity  based  on 
rational  motives,  action  directed  by  moral  principles], 
we  must  not  forget  that  feeling  and  imagination  are  not 
less  necessary  to  a  truly  complete  human  being.  The 


74:  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

special  directions  which  the  activity  of  cognitive  (or 
theoretical  as  opposed  to  practical  intelligence  or  the 
will)  intelligence  takes  are  (1)  sense-perception,  (2) 
representation  (or  imagination),  (3)  thinking.  Dialecti- 
cally,  they  pass  over  into  each  other ;  not  only  does  per- 
ception grow  into  representation,  and  representation  into 
thinking,  but  thinking  goes  back  into  representation, 
and  this  again  into  perception.  In  the  development  of 
the  young,  the  perceptive  faculty  is  most  active  in  the 
infant,  the  representative  faculty  in  the  child,  and  the 
thinking  faculty  in  the  youth ;  and  thus  we  may  distin- 
guish an  intuitive,  an  imaginative,  and  a  logical  epoch. 

Great  errors  arise  from  the  misapprehension  of  these  different 
phases  and  of  their  dialectic,  since  the  different  forms  which  are  suit- 
able to  the  different  grades  of  youth  are  mingled.  The  infant  cer- 
tainly thinks  while  he  perceives,  but  this  thinking  is  to  him  uncon- 
scious. Or,  if  he  has  acquired  sense-perceptions,  he  makes  them  into 
mental  images,  and  manifests  his  freedom  in  making  them  the  sport 
of  his  fancy.  This  play  of  fancy  must  not  be  taken  for  mere  amuse- 
ment ;  it  also  signifies  that  he  takes  care  to  preserve  his  intellectual 
balance,  and  his  power  of  assimilation  while  engaged  in  filling  his 
consciousness  with  material.  Herein  the  delight  of  the  child  for 
fairy-tales  finds  its  deeper  reason.  The  fairy-tale  constantly  tran- 
scends the  limits  of  common  actuality.  The  abstract  "common 
sense "  can  not  endure  this  arbitrariness  and  want  of  fixed  condi- 
tions, and  thus  would  prefer  that  children  should  read,  instead, 
home-made  stories  of  the  "  Charitable  Ann,"  of  the  "  Heedless  Fred- 
erick," of  the  "  Inquisitive  Wilhelmine,"  etc.  Above  all,  it  praises 
Campe's  *  "  Robinson  Crusoe,"  which  contains  much  heterogeneous 
matter,  but  nothing  improbable.  When  the  maturity  of  youth  neces- 
sitates the  transition  into  the  earnestness  of  real  life,  the  drying  up 
of  the  imagination  and  the  sway  of  the  understanding  supervene. 

*  J.  H.  Campe,  the  disciple  of  Basedow,  wrote  an  adaptation  of  De  Foe's 
work,  under  the  title  of"  Kobinson  der  Jiingere,"  with  a  view  to  teach  how 
"to  live  according  to  Nature."  First  edition,  1779;  fifty-seventh  edition, 
1859  I— Note  by  ED. 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  75 

[(Note  what  has  been  said  above  in  §  82.)  Perception,  con- 
ception, and  thinking  are  named  as  the  three  stages  of  intellect. 
Perception  (German  word,  Anschaueri)  here  refers  simply  to  the 
contemplation  of  objects  by  the  senses.  Conception  (German 
word,  Vorstellen)  makes  in  the  mind  a  picture  of  the  object, 
but  a  general  picture  —  a  representation  of  the  object  in  its 
outlines — a  representation  that  will  correspond  not  only  to  the 
particular  object,  but  to  all  objects  of  the  same  class.  Think- 
ing perceives  the  essential  relations  of  the  object,  its  depend- 
encies on  its  environment,  and  the  reciprocal  action.  Educa- 
tion produces  in  the  pupil  the  ability  to  carry  back  the  activ- 
ity of  the  higher  faculties  into  the  lower  ones,  as  stated  in  the 
text.  In  the  presence  of  perception  the  mind  learns  to  be  able 
to  recall  the  general  representation  of  the  type  or  class  of  objects, 
and  compare  the  object  before  the  senses  with  the  general  type 
or  the  definition.  It  enables  it  also  to  think  in  the  presence  of 
the  object,  and  to  perceive  essential  relations  at  the  same  time 
that  it  is  occupied  with  perception  and  conception.  Thus  it 
elevates  the  lower  faculties  to  thinking  perception  and  to  think- 
ing conception.  The  child  delights  in  fairy-tales  because  they 
sport  with  the  fixed  conditions  of  actuality,  and  present  to  him 
a  picture  of  free  power  over  nature  and  circumstances.  Thus 
they,  to  some  extent,  prefigure  to  him  the  conquest  which  his 
race  has  accomplished,  and  is  accomplishing — it  is  made  to  ap- 
pear as  the  exploits  of  some  Aladdin,  or  Jack  the  Giant-Killer. 
To  modify,  change,  or  destroy  "  the  limits  of  common  actuality  " 
is  the  perpetual  work  of  the  race.  It  molds  the  external  world 
to  suit  its  own  ideas.  Play  is  the  first  education  that  the  child 
gets  to  prepare  him  for  this  human  destiny.  The  term  "  dia- 
lectic "  is  a  stumbling-block  to  the  reader  unacquainted  with 
German  philosophy.  "  Dialectically  they  pass  over  into  each 
other  " — i.  e.,  in  tracing  out  either  of  these  phases  of  intellect 
we  discover  that  it  implies  each  of  the  others  in  order  to  its  own 
completeness  and  perfection.  Perception  is  increased  immensely 
in  power  by  adding  to  it  conception,  which  brings  the  aid  of  the 
general  image  in  which  are  summed  up  all  previous  perceptions ; 
thus  perception  re-enforced  by  conception  is  an  individual  activ- 
ity re-enforced  by  the  sum  total  of  the  race  activity,  or  at  least 
by  the  sum  total  of  all  previous  activity  of  the  same  individual 
as  well  as  by  what  he  has  learned  from  his  fellows.  Thus,  too, 


76  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OP  EDUCATION. 

perception  is  still  more  increased  by  adding  to  it  the  thinking 
activity  which  perceives  necessary  relations.  Agassiz  looks  at  a 
new  fish  from  the  Amazon  River  and  sees  at  once  its  type  and 
its  variations — knows  at  once  the  great  mass  of  its  properties, 
functions,  faculties,  habits,  and  history,  simply  by  its  classifica- 
tion under  already  known  genera,  species,  and  sub-classes.  This 
enables  him  to  distinguish  at  once  its  variations  from  the  gen- 
eral type  and  to  see  the  significance  of  its  peculiarities.  In  the 
same  manner  a  botanist  (Prof.  Gray,  for  example)  glances  at  a 
tree  as  he  passes  it  rapidly,  from  the  car-window.  He  sees  its 
resemblances  and  its  differences,  however,  in  that  rapid  glance, 
because  he  subsumes  it  under  all  that  he  knows — all  that  is 
known,  in  fact,  as  the  aggregate  result  of  all  observations  for 
thousands  of  years.  By  recognizing  its  series,  class,  sub-class, 
order,  sub-order,  tribe,  genus,  species,  and  variety,  he  is  instantly 
in  possession  of  information  enough  to  make  a  library  of  books 
on  the  subject  of  that  one  tree.  He  saw  enough,  too,  in  the 
rapid  glance  to  inform  himself  of  its  individual  differences,  its 
particular  size,  age,  shape,  and  condition,  in  so  far  as  these  were 
peculiar.  Contrast  this  with  the  information  obtained  by  the 
sense-perception  of  an  observer  endowed  with  excellent  sight 
but  no  knowledge  of  botany.  Science,  which  is  the  product  of 
conception  and  thinking,  thus  re-enforces  sense-perception,  and 
«'  dialectically  "  the  latter  demands  for  its  perfection  those  higher 
activities,  and,  vice  versa,  thinking  and  conception,  which  deal 
with  the  universal  or  the  possibility  and  the  process  which  cre- 
ates particular  individuals,  demand  sense-perception  to  take 
cognizance  of  those  individuals.] 


CHAPTER  V. 

INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION,     (a)  Psychology  (continued). 
(1)  The  Intuitive  Epoch. 

§  85.  SENSE-PEKCEPTION,  as  the  beginning  of  intel- 
lectual culture,  is  the  free  grasping  of  an  object  immedi- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  77 

ately  present  to  the  mind.  Education  can  do  nothing 
directly  toward  the  performance  of  this  act ;  it  can  only 
assist  in  making  it  easy  :  (1)  it  can  isolate  the  object  of 
consideration ;  (2)  it  can  give  facility  in  the  transition 
to  another ;  (3)  it  can  promote  the  many-sidedness  of  the 
interest,  by  which  means  the  return  to  a  perception 
already  obtained  has  always  a  fresh  charm. 

[Sense-perception  (German  Anschauung)  is  called  intuition 
in  all  the  earlier  translations  of  Kant,  because  the  Latin  word 
intueri  was  suggested  by  Kant  as  an  equivalent  for  anscliauen. 
Hence  "  intuitive  epoch  "  means  epoch  of  sense-perception.  Per- 
ception can  be  assisted  by  isolation  of  the  object  to  be  perceived. 
The  pupil  should  be  trained  to  look  for  certain  properties  and 
attributes,  and  to  note  their  peculiarities.  The  categories  under 
which  one  may  classify  these  properties  and  attributes  are  fur- 
nished by  reflection.  Hence,  when  one  in  the  so-called  "  object- 
lessons  "  trains  the  pupil  to  note  in  all  objects  certain  constantly 
recurring  predicates,  such  as  color,  shape,  frangibility,  solubility, 
size,  number,  taste,  smell,  etc.,  he  is  bringing  thought  and  con- 
ception "  back  into  perception "  (see  previous  section)  and  ele- 
vating mere  perception  into  thinking  perception.  The  difference 
between  ordinary  perception  and  scientific  perception  lies  just 
here:  while  the  former  is  unsystematic  and  fragmentary,  and 
does  not  accumulate  or  collect  and  retain  data  in  the  form  of 
general  ideas,  the  latter  is  systematic,  exhaustive  and  cumu- 
lative. Thinking  gives  the  system.  Hence,  the  training  of 
perception  is  the  subordination  of  it  to  the  will,  and  the  intro- 
duction of  complete  systematic  habits  of  activity  in  place  cf 
accidental  perception.] 

§  86.  There  are  many  things  which  can  not  be  pre- 
sented to  immediate  perception,  however  desirable  it 
may  be.  We  must  then  have  recourse  to  a  mediated 
perception,  and  supply  the  lack  of  actual  seeing  by  rep- 
resentations through  pictures  and  models.  But  here  the 
difficulty  presents  itself,  that  there  are  many  objects 
which  we  are  not  able  to  represent  in  their  true  size, 


78  THE   SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

and  we  must  have  a  reduced  scale,  whence  results  a  diffi- 
culty as  to  the  selection  of  the  best  standard.  An  ex- 
planation is  then  also  necessary  as  a  judicious  supple- 
ment to  the  picture. 

[All  perceivable  objects  should  be  learned  by  actual  perception 
so  far  as  is  possible.  When  remoteness  in  space  and  time  or  in- 
accessibility on  account  of  size  prevents  this,  a  good  substitute 
offers  itself  in  the  way  of  pictorial  representation.  The  picture, 
of  course,  idealizes  much — it  magnifies  some  objects  and  reduces 
others,  and  it  never  presents  all  of  the  features  found  in  nature. 
But  it  omits  unessential  details  for  the  most  part,  and  this  fact 
makes  a  picture  much  easier  to  learn  than  the  real  object,  al- 
though the  knowledge  is  not  so  practical.  The  picture  is  com- 
monly nearer  the  type  or  general  form  of  the  object  than  real 
specimens ;  the  real  specimens  have  much  about  them  that  is 
accidental,  and  need  much  comparison  to  discover  what  is  the 
normal  type.  The  picture  gives  this  type  at  once,  %and  hence 
gives  assistance  to  the  pupil — half  digests  his  mental  fooci  for 
him,  in  fact.  Hence  the  pictorial  representation  has  advantages 
(it  is  easy  of  apprehension  because  it  is  a  perception  reduced  to 
conception),  and  disadvantages  (the  pupil  does  not  get  the 
strength  that  comes  from  reducing  the  specimens  of  nature  to 
their  types  by  his  own  efforts).] 

§  87.  Pictures  are  extremely  valuable  aids  to  in- 
struction when  they  are  correct  and  characteristic.  Cor- 
rectness must  be  demanded  in  these  substitutes  for  nat- 
ural objects,  historical  persons,  and  scenes.  Without 
this  correctness,  the  picture,  if  not  an  impediment,  is,  to 
say  the  least,  useless. 

It  is  only  since  the  last  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  i.  e., 
since  the  disappearance  of  the  genuine  art  of  painting,  that  the  pict- 
ure-book has  appeared  as  an  educational  means  ;  first  of  all,  coming 
from  miniature-painting.  Up  to  that  time,  public  life  was  more 
picturesque  with  its  display  of  arms,  furniture,  houses,  and  churches ; 
and  men,  from  their  fondness  for  constant  travel,  had  their  hun- 
ger for  immediate  perception  sated.  It  was  only  afterward,  when, 
m  the  excitement  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  the  arts  of  sculpture  and 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  79 

painting  and  Christian  and  pagan  mythology  became  extinct,  that 
there  arose  a  greater  necessity  for  pictured  representations.  The 
Orb  is  Rerum  Sensualium  Pictus,  which  was  also  to  be  Sijanua  lin- 
guarum  reserata,  of  Amos  Comenius,  appeared  first  in  1658,  and  was 
reprinted  in  1805.  Many  valuable  illustrated  books  followed.  Since 
that  time  innumerable  illustrated  Bibles  and  histories  have  appeared, 
but  many  of  them  look  only  to  the  pecuniary  profit  of  the  author  or 
the  publisher.  [The  remainder  of  this  section,  devoted  to  a  criticism 
of  the  German  illustrated  books  of  the  period,  is  omitted.] 

[Accuracy  is,  above  all,  demanded  in  pictorial  representations. 
The  picture-book  came  into  use  chiefly  after  the  decline  of  paint- 
ing. Comenius  (1658)  gave  a  great  impulse  to  education  by  his 
book,  which  attempts  to  convey  a  knowledge  of  the  world  by 
pictures.] 

§  88.  Children  have  naturally  a  desire  to  collect 
things,  and  this  may  be  so  guided  that  they  shall  collect 
and  arrange  plants,  butterflies,  beetles,  shells,  skeletons, 
etc.,  and  thus  gain  exactness  and  reality  in  their  percep- 
tion. .Especially  should  they  practice  drawing,  which 
leads  them  to  form  exact  images  of  objects.  But  draw- 
ing, as  children  practice  it,  does  not  have  the  educational 
significance  of  cultivating  in  them  an  appreciation  of 
art,  but  rather  that  of  educating  the  eye,  as  this  must  be 
exercised  in  estimating  distances,  sizes,  and  colors.  It 
is,  moreover,  a  great  gain  in  many  ways,  if,  through  a 
suitable  course  of  lessons  in  drawing,  the  child  is  ad- 
vanced to  a  knowledge  of  the  elementary  forms  of  na- 
ture. 

That  pictures  should  affect  children  as  works  of  art  is  not  to  be 
required.  They  confine  themselves  at  first  to  distinguishing  the 
outlines  and  colors,  and  do  not  yet  appreciate  the  execution.  If  the 
children  have  access  to  real  works  of  art,  we  may  safely  trust  in  their 
power,  and  quietly  await  their  moral  and  aesthetic  effect.  [Notice  of 
a  work  on  drawing  omitted.] 

[Children  should  be  exercised  in  classification.     They  should 
collect  and  arrange  cabinets  for  themselves.     This  will  give 
10 


80  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

them  ability  in  recognizing  the  type  in  the  specimen,  the  gen- 
eral in  the  particular.  Drawing,  too,  is  excellent  for  the  train- 
ing of  sense-perception,  if  from  objects  direct,  inasmuch  as  it 
requires  the  pupil  to  omit  all  that  is  not  characteristic  of  the 
object.  How  far  lines  suffice  to  delineate  an  object,  and  fix  it 
unmistakably,  and  what  these  few  lines  are,  the  art  of  drawing 
teaches.  Characterization  must  be  learned  first  before  any  at- 
tempt at  a3sthetic  effect.  But  true  works  of  art  must  be  placed 
where  the  child  will  receive  a  silent  education  from  them,  al- 
though no  positive  instruction  is  given  in  them.] 

§  89.  In  order  that  looking  at  pictures  shall  not  de- 
generate into  mere  diversion,  explanations  should  accom- 
pany them.  Only  when  the  thought  embodied  in  the 
illustrations  is  pointed  out,  can  they  be  useful  as  a  means 
of  instruction.  Simply  looking  at  them  is  of  as  little 
value  toward  this  end  as  is  water  for  baptism  without 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Our  age  inclines  at  present  to  the 
superstition  that  man  is  able,  by  means  of  simple  sense- 
perception,  to  attain  a  knowledge  of  the  essence  of 
things,  and  thereby  dispense  with  the  trouble  of  think- 
ing. Illustrations  are  the  order  of  the  day,  and,  in  the 
place  of  enjoyable  descriptions,  we  find  inferior  pict- 
ures. It  is  in  vain  to  try  to  get  behind  things,  or  to 
comprehend  them,  except  by  thinking. 

[Pictorial  representation  is  of  little  service,  unless  accom- 
panied by  analysis  and  explanation.  Mere  gazing  upon  a 
picture  is  like  the  thoughtless  gazing  upon  real  objects — it  is 
not  systematic,  and  does  not  separate  the  essential  from  the 
accidental,  nor  exhaust  the  subject.] 

§  90.  The  ear  as  well  as  the  eye  must  be  cultivated. 
Music  must  be  considered  the  first  educational  means  to 
this  end,  but  it  should  be  music  inspired  by  ethical 
purity.  Hearing  is  the  most  internal  [i.  e.,  it  reveals  to 
us  the  internal  character  of  objects]  of  all  the  senses, 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  81 

and  should  on  this  account  be  treated  with  the  greatest 
delicacy.  Especially  should  the  child  be  taught  that  he 
is  not  to  look  upon  speech  as  merely  a  useful  vehicle  for 
communication  and  for  gaining  information ;  it  should 
also  give  pleasure,  and  therefore  he  should  be  taught  to 
speak  distinctly  and  with  a  good  intonation,  and  this 
can  be  reached  only  through  careful  attention. 

Among  the  Greeks,  extraordinary  care  was  given  to  musical  cul- 
tivation, especially  in  its  ethical  relation.    Sufficient  proof  of  this  is 
found  in  the  admirable  detailed  statements  on  this  point  in  the  "  Re- 
public "  of  Plato,  and  in  the  last  book  of  the  "  Politics  "  of  Aristotle. 
Among  modern  nations,  also,  music  holds  a  high  place,  and  makes 
its  appearance  as  a  constant  element  of  education.    Piano-playing 
has  become  general,  and  singing  is  also  taught.    But  the  ethical  sig- 
nificance of  music  is  too  little  considered.    Instruction  in  music  often 
aims  only  to  train  pupils  for  display  in  society,  and  the  tendency  of 
the  melodies  which  are  played  is  restricted  more  and  more  to  orches- 
tral airs  of  an  exciting  or  bacchanalian  character.    The  railroad- 
gallop  style  only  makes  the  nerves  of  youth  vibrate  with  stimulating 
excitement.    Oral  speech,  the  highest  form  of  the  personal  mani- 
festation of  mind,  was  also  treated  with  great  reverence  by  the  an- 
cients.   Among  us,  communication  is  so  generally  carried  on  by  -^ 
writing  and  reading  that  the  art  of  speaking  distinctly,  correctly,  |j 
and  agreeably,  has  become  very  much  neglected.    Practice  in  decla-  i 
mation  accomplishes,  on  the  whole,  very  little  in  this  direction.    But  f 
we  may  expect  that  the  increase  of  public  speaking  occasioned  by  J 
our  political  and  religious  assemblies  may  have  a  favorable  influence  j 
in  this  particular. 

[Training  of  the  ear  by  music  and  by  correct  speaking.  Tones 
are  of  all  kinds — solemn,  joyous,  lively,  sad,  contemplative,  dis- 
cordant and  suggestive  of  hate  and  bitterness,  harmonious  and 
sweet  and  suggestive  of  love  and  agreement,  etc.  There  is  a 
long  scale  of  degrees  to  each  one  of  these  feelings  and  passions, 
and  music  can  present  all  shades  of  each.  Even  the  keys  have 
each  a  special  character.  The  German  composers  have  used 
these  and  other  properties  of  tones  to  advantage  in  constructing 
great  musical  dramas,  in  which  pure  music  accomplishes  results 
similar  to  words  in  poetry.] 


82  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION,     (a)  Psychology  (continued). 
(2)  The  Imaginative  Epoch. 

§  91.  THE  activity  of  perception  results  in  the  for- 
mation of  an  internal  picture  or  image  which  intelli- 
gence can  call  up  at  any  time  at  pleasure,  and  imagine 
it  as  occupying  an  ideal  space,  although  the  object  is 
absent,  in  fact,  and  thus  this  image  or  picture  becomes  a 
sort  of  general  schema  (or  pattern  applicable  to  a  class 
of  objects),  and  hence  an  image-concept.  The  mental 
image  may  (1)  be  compared  with  the  perception  from 
which  it  sprang,  or  (2)  it  may  be  arbitrarily  altered  and 
combined  with  other  images,  or  (3)  it  may  be  held  fast 
in  the  form  of  abstract  signs  or  symbols  which  intelli- 
gence invents  for  it.  Thus  originate  the  functions  (1) 
of  the  verification  of  conceptions,  (2)  of  creative  imagi- 
nation, and  (3)  of  memory.  For  their  full  treatment, 
we  must  refer  to  psychology. 

[(1)  Verification  of  conceptions  through  comparison  of  the 
conception  with  the  perception -,'(2)  creative  imagination,  which 
modifies  or  combines  images;  (3)  memory,  which  holds  fast 
perceptions  by  attaching  them  to  arbitrary  or  conventional 
symbols,  such  as  words.] 

§  92.  (1)  The  mental  image  which  we  form  of  an 
object  may  be  correct ;  again,  it  may  be  partly  or  wholly 
defective,  if  we  have  neglected  some  of  the  predicates 
of  the  perception  which  presented  themselves,  or  in  so 
far  as  we  have  added  to  it  other  predicates  which  only 
seemingly  belonged  to  it,  and  which  were  attached  to  it 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  83 

only  by  its  accidental  connection  with  other  existences. 
Education  must,  therefore,  foster  the  habit  of  comparing 
our  conceptions  with  the  perceptions  from  which  they 
arose ;  and  these  perceptions,  since  they  are  liable  to 
change  by  reason  of  their  connection  with  other  objects, 
must  be  frequently  compared  with  our  conceptions  pre- 
viously derived  by  abstraction  from  them. 

[Method  of  verification  and  its  function.] 
§  93.  (2)  "We  are  thus  limited  in  our  conceptions  by 
our  perceptions,  but  we  exercise  a  free  control  over  our 
conceptions.  We  can  create  out  of  them,  as  simple  ele- 
ments, the  manifold  mental  shapes  which  Ve  do  not 
treat  as  given  to  us  by  objects,  but  as  essentially  our  own 
work.  In  the  science  of  education,  we  must  not  look 
upon  this  freedom  as  if  its  exercise  were  only  to  afford 
gratification,  but  we  must  see  in  it  the  reaction  of  the 
absolute  independence  of  mind  against  the  dependence 
in  which  the  empirical  reception  of  impressions  from 
without  and  their  reproduction  in  conceptions  place  it. 
In  this  process,  it  not  only  fashions  in  itself  or  repro- 
duces the  phenomenal  world,  but  it  produces  for  itself  a 
world  which  is  all  its  own. 

[Emancipation  of  the  mind  takes  place  through  its  ascent 
into  formative  power,  and  this  is  realized  in  two  ways :  (a)  in 
reaching  the  general  types  of  objects,  the  mind  finds  the  one 
form  that  stands  for  many,  and  gains  ability  to  see  the  one  in 
the  many,  the  power  to  hold  the  essential  and  permanent  with- 
out depending  on  anyone  particular  object  or  specimen  or  act  of 
sense-perception ;  (b)  in  reproducing,  by  aid  of  the  general  con- 
ception or  abstract  definition,  a  number  of  special  examples,  it 
is  able  to  fashion  them  in  various  ways,  and  yet  endow  them  all 
with  possible  attributes  and  characteristics.  The  mind  thus  has 
free  scope  of  realization,  and  can,  in  an  ideal  world  of  its  own 
creation,  participate  in  creative  activity.] 


8i  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

§  94  The  study  of  art  comes  here  to  the  aid  of  educa- 
tion, especially  of  poetry,  the  highest  art  and  at  the  same 
time  the  most  easily  communicated.  The  imagination 
of  the  pupil  can  be  led  by  means  of  the  classical  works 
of  creative  imagination  to  the  formation  of  a  good  taste 
both  as  regards  ethical  merit  and  beauty  of  form.  The 
proper  classical  works  for  youth  are  those  which  nations 
have  produced  in  the  childhood  of  their  culture.  These 
works  bring  children  face  to  face  with  the  picture  of 
the  world  which  the  human  mind  has  sketched  for  itself 
in  one  of  the  necessary  stages  of  its  development.  This 
is  the  real  reason  why  our  children  never  weary  of 
reading  Homer  and  the  stories  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Polytheism  and  the  heroism  (as  well  as  hero-worship) 
which  belongs  to  it  are  just  as  substantial  an  element  of 
the  view  of  the  world  that  childhood  forms  as  monothe- 
ism with  its  prophets  and  patriarchs.  The  standpoint  of 
modern  civilization  is  above  both  of  these,  because  it  is 
mediated  by  both,  and  embraces  both  in  itself. 

The  best  literature  designed  for  the  amusement  of  children  from 
their  seventh  to  their  fourteenth  year  consists  always  of  that  which 
is  honored  by  nations  and  the  world  at  large.  One  has  only  to 
notice  in  how  many  thousand  forms  the  story  of  Ulysses  is  repro- 
duced by  the  writers  of  children's  tales.  Becker's  "  Ancient  Stories," 
Gustav  Schwab's  most  admirable  "  Sagas  of  Antiquity,"  Karl  Grimm's 
"  Tales  of  Olden  Times,"  etc.,  what  were  they  without  the  well-talk- 
ing, wily  favorite  of  Pallas  and  the  divine  swine-herd  I  And  just  as 
indestructible  are  the  stories  of  the  Old  Testament  up  to  the  separa- 
tion of  Judah  and  Israe}.  These  patriarchs  with  their  wives  and 
daughters,  these  judges  ai^d  prophets,  these  kings  and  priests,  are  by 
no  means  ideals  of  virtue  tfrom  the  standpoint  of  our  modern  lifeless 
morality,  which  would  smooth  out  of  its  pattern-stories  for  the  "  dear 
children  "  everything  thaj;  is  hard  and  uncouth.  For  the  very  reason 
that  the  shadow-side  is  ^iot  wanting  here,  and  that  we  find  envy, 
vanity,  evil  desire,  ingratitude,  craftiness,  and  deceit,  among  these 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  85 

fathers  of  the  race  and  leaders  of  God's  chosen  people,  have  these 
stories  so  great  an  educational  value.  Adam,  Cain,  Abraham,  Joseph, 
Samson,  and  David,  have  justly  become  as  truly  world-historical 
types  as  Achilles  and  Patroclus,  Agamemnon  and  Iphigenia,  Hector 
and  Andromache,  Ulysses  and  Penelope. 

[In  the  epoch  of  the  development  of  the  imagination  the  study 
of  art  and  literature  comes  in.  The  first  classics  for  youth  are 
those  which  have  been  developed  by  nations  in  their  earliest 
stages.  Not  only  the  light  sides,  but  the  darker  sides  of  char- 
acter in  these  naive  stories,  are  essential  to  their  educative 
effect.  They  furnish  types  of  human  character,  and  types  of 
human  situations,  a  knowledge  of  which  constitutes  wisdom. 
The  conception  of  the  characters  of  Cain,  Joseph,  Samson, 
David,  Saul,  Ulysses,  Penelope,  Achilles,  and  the  like,  furnishes 
a  ready  classification  for  special  instances  of  character  that  we 
encounter  in  our  experience.] 

§  95.  There  may  be  produced,  also,  out  of  the  sim- 
plest and  na'ivest  phases  of  different  epochs  of  culture 
of  one  and  the  same  people,  stories  which  answer  to  the 
imagination  of  children,  and  represent  to  them  the  char- 
acteristic features  of  the  past  of  their  people. 

The  Germans  possess  such  a  collection  of  their  stories  in  their 
popular  books  of  the  "  Invulnerable  Sigfried,"  of  the  "  Heymon  Chil- 
dren," of  "  Beautiful  Magelone,"  "  Fortunatus,"  "  The  Wandering 
Jew,"  "  Faust,"  "  The  Adventurous  Simplicissimus,"  "  The  Schild- 
biirger,"  "  The  Island  of  Felsenburg,"  "  Leonard  and  Gertrude,"  etc. 
Also,  the  poetical  art  works  of  the  great  masters  which  possess  na- 
tional significance  must  be  mentioned  here,  as  the  "  Don  Quixote  " 
of  Cervantes. 

[Every  child  should  read  as  indispensable  the  stock  of  stories 
which  furnish  these  general  types  of  character  and  situation. 
"  Kobinson  Crusoe,"  "  Gulliver's  Travels,"  "  Don  Quixote,"  the 
"Arabian  Nights,"  Plutarch's  "Lives,"  Homer's  "Iliad"  and 
"Odyssey,"  and  the  dramas  of  Shakespeare,  should  be  read 
sooner  or  later.  Earlier  than  these,  the  old  English  stories 
and  fairy-tales,  and  even  "  Mother  Goose's  Melodies."  A  scale 
thus  extending  from  the  earth  to  the  fixed  stars  of  genius 
furnishes  pictures  of  human  life  of  all  degrees  of  concreteness. 


86  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  meager  and  abstract  outline  is  given  in  the  nursery-tale, 
and  the  deep,  comprehensive  grasp  of  the  situation  with  all  of 
its  motives  is  found  in  Shakespeare.  The  summation  of  the 
events  of  life  in  "  Solomon  Grundy  "  has  been  compared  to  the 
epitome  furnished  by  Shakespeare  in  the  "  Seven  Ages,"  and  the 
disastrous  voyage  of  the  "  Three  Men  of  Gotham "  is  made  a 
universal  type  of  human  disaster  arising  from  rash  adventure. 
The  bald  incident  related  in  the  nursery  rhyme  gives  the  child 
a  typical  fact  or  event  which  answers  for  a  general  concept  and 
enables  him  to  "  re-enforce  "  (see  commentary  to  §  84)  his  sense- 
perception,  so  that  he  acquires  conscious  experience  far  more 
rapidly  than  he  could  do  without  its  aid.] 

§  96.  The  commonest  form  in  which  the  childish 
imagination  finds  exercise  is  that  of  fairy-tales ;  but  edu- 
cation must  take  care  that  it  has  these  in  their  proper 
shape  as  national  productions,  and  that  they  are  not  of 
the  morbid  kind  which  artificial  poetry  so  often  gives 
us  in  this  species  of  literature,  and  which  not  seldom 
degenerate  into  sentimental  caricatures  and  silliness. 

The  East  Indian  stories  are  most  excellent  because  they  have 
their  origin  with  a  child-like  people  who  live  wholly  in  the  imagina- 
tion. By  means  of  the  Arabian  filtration,  which  took  place  in  Cairo 
in  the  flourishing  period  of  the  Egyptian  caliphs,  all  that  was  too 
characteristically  Indian  was  excluded,  and  they  were  made  in  the 
"  Tales  of  Sheherazade,"  a  book  for  all  peoples,  with  whose  far-reach- 
ing power  in  child-literature  the  local  stories  of  a  single  people,  as, 
e.  g.,  Grimm's  admirable  ones  of  German  tradition,  can  not  compare. 
Fairy-tales  made  to  order,  like  those  with  a  mediaeval  Catholic  tend- 
ency, or  very  moral  and  dry,  as  we  often  see  them,  are-a  bane  to  the 
youthful  imagination  in  their  insipid  sweetness.  We*  must  here  add, 
however,  that  lately  we  have  had  some  better  success  in  our  attempts 
since  we  have  learned  to  distinguish  between  the  naive  natural  poetry, 
which  is  without  reflection,  and  the  poetry  of  art,  which  is  more  or 
less  molded  by  criticism  and  a  conscious  ideal.  This  distinction  has 
produced  good  fruits  even  in  the  picture-books  of  children.  The 
pretensions  of  the  gentlemen  who  printed  illustrated  books  contain- 
ing nothing  more  solid  than  the  alphabet  and  the  multiplication- 
table  have  become  less  prominent  since  such  men  as  Speckter,  Fro'h- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  87 

lich,  Gutsmuths,  Hofmann  (the  writer  of  "Slovenly  Peter"),  and 
others  have  shown  that  seemingly  trivial  things  can  be  handled  with 
intellectual  power,  if  one  is  blessed  with  it,  and  that  nothing  is  more 
opposed  to  the  child's  imagination  than  the  childishness  into  which 
so  many  writers  for  children  have  fallen  when  they  attempted  to  de- 
scend with  dignity  from  their  assumed  lofty  standpoint.  Men  are 
beginning  to  understand  that  Christ  promised  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
to  little  children  on  other  grounds  than  because  they  had,  as  it  were, 
the  privilege  of  being  thoughtless  and  foolish. 

[Importance  of  avoiding  morbid  tendencies  in  the  stories  for 

children.    They  must  be  naive  and  not  sentimental ;  but  mere 

childishness  is  to  be  avoided.] 

§  97.  For  youth  and  maidens,  especially  as  they  ap- 
proach manhood  and  womanhood,  the  cultivation  of  the 
imagination  must  yield  place  and  allow  the  earnestness 
which  deals  with  the  actual  affairs  of  the  world  to  mani- 
fest itself  in  its  undisguised  energy.  This  earnestness, 
no  longer  through  the  symbolism  of  play  but  in  its  ob- 
jective reality,  must  now  thoroughly  penetrate  the  con- 
ceptions of  the  youth  so  that  it  shall  prepare  him  to 
seize  hold  of  the  machinery  of  active  life.  Instead  of 
the  all-embracing  Epos,  now  comes  Tragedy,  whose 
purifying  process,  through  the  feelings  of  fear  and  pity, 
unfolds  to  the  youth  the  secret  of  all  human  destiny — sin, 
and  its  expiation.  The  works  best  adapted  to  lead  to 
an  interest  in  history  and  the  aflfairs  of  the  actual  world 
are  those  of  biography — of  ancient  times,  Plutarch ;  of 
modern  times,  the  autobiographies  of  Augustine,  Cellini, 
Rousseau,  Goethe,  Yarnhagen,  Jung -Stilling,  Moritz 
Arndt,  etc.  These  autobiographies  contain  a  view  of 
the  growth  of  individuality  through  its  interaction  with 
the  influences  of  its  time,  and,  together  with  the  letters 
and  memoirs  of  great  or  at  least  noteworthy  men,  tend 
to  produce  a  healthy  excitement  in  the  youth,  who  must 


88  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

learn  to  fight  his  own  battles  through  a  knowledge  of 
the  battles  of  others.  To  introduce  the  youth  to  a 
knowledge  of  nature  and  man  no  means  are  better  than 
books  of  travels  which  describe  for  us  the  charm  of  the 
first  interview,  the  joy  of  discovery,  instead  of  the  gen- 
eral consciousness  of  the  conquests  of  mind. 

If  educative  literature  on  the  one  hand  broadens  the  field  of 
knowledge,  on  the  other  it  may  also  promote  its  elaboration  into 
ideal  forms.  This  happens,  in  a  strict  sense,  through  philosophical 
literature.  But  only  two  species  of  this  are  to  be  recommended  to 
youth :  (1)  well-written  treatises  which  endeavor  to  solve  a  single 
problem  with  spirit  and  thoroughness ;  or,  (2)  when  the  intelligence 
has  grown  strong  enough  for  it,  the  classical  works  of  a  true  philoso- 
pher. German  literature  is  fortunately  very  rich  in  treatises  of  this 
kind  in  the  works  of  Lessing,  Herder,  Kant,  Fichte,  Schleiermacher, 
Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  and  Schiller.  But  nothing  does  more  harm 
to  youth  than  the  study  of  works  of  mediocrity,  or  those  of  a  still 
lower  rank.  They  stupefy  and  narrow  the  youthful  mind  by  their 
empty,  hollow,  and  constrained  style.  It  is  generally  supposed  that 
these  standard  works  are  too  difficult,  and  that  one  must  first  seize 
them  in  a  trivial  and  diluted  form  in  order  to  understand  them.  This 
is  one  of  the  most  prevalent  and  most  dangerous  errors,  for  these 
"  introductions  "  or  "  explanations,"  "  easily  comprehended  treatises," 
"  summary  abstracts,"  are,  because  of  their  want  of  originality  and 
of  the  acuteness  which  belongs  to  it,  much  more  difficult  to  under- 
stand than  the  standard  work  itself,  to  which  they  propose  to  con- 
duct us.  Education  must  train  the  youth  to  the  courage  which  will 
attempt  classical  works  in  philosophy,  and  it  must  not  allow  any  such 
miserable  preconceived  opinions  to  grow  up  in  his  mind  as  that  his 
understanding  is  totally  unable  to  comprehend  works  like  Fichte's 
"  Science  of  Knowledge,"  the  "  Metaphysics  "  of  Aristotle,  or  Hegel's 
"  Phenomenology."  No  science  suffers  so  much  as  philosophy  from 
this  false  popular  opinion,  which  understands  neither  itself  nor  its 
authority.  The  youth  must  learn  how  to  learn  to  understand,  and, 
in  order  to  do  this,  he  must  know  that  one  can  not  immediately  un- 
derstand everything  in  its  minutest  subdivisions,  and  that  on  this  ac- 
count he  must  have  patience,  and  must  resolve  to  read  over  and  over 
again  and  to  think  over  what  he  has  read. 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  89 

[Earnestness  must  predominate  over  play,  as  the  child  ad- 
yances  into  youth  and  youth  into  riper  age.  Aristotle  said  that 
tragedy  purifies  the  mind,  by  fear  and  pity,  from  the  passions 
depicted  in  the  drama  as  having  tragic  results.  Certainly  in  the 
dramas  of  Sophocles  and  JEschylus  we  see  presented  the  great 
problem  of  a  human  deed  and  its  reaction  on  the  doer.  But 
the  Greek  consciousness  had  not  arrived  at  the  solution  of  the 
problem  of  sin  and  responsibility  which  Christian  nations  now 
accept.  (Edipus  sins  through  ignorance  but  suffers  all  the  same 
as  if  perfectly  enlightened.  According  to  modern  ideas  of 
justice,  involuntary  ignorance  palliates  the  crime.  The  remarks 
on  the  study  of  the  deepest  and  most  original  works  in  philoso- 
phy can  not  be  too  highly  praised.  The  "  courage  "  which  will 
attempt  Aristotle,  Kant,  or  Hegel  is  a  rare  and  valuable  disci- 
pline, at  least  for  the  sake  of  what  it  can  do  in  mastering  other 
subjects  than  philosophy.  There  is  no  lesson  the  student  can 
learn  so  important  to  him  as  this:  The  most  difficult  of 
writings  can  be  mastered  by  repeated  attacks  that  concentrate 
the  whole  energy  on  a  small  portion.  Let  a  student  read  one 
page  of  Kant's  "  Critique  of  Pure  Reason "  when  his  mind,  is 
fresh,  concentrating  his  full  attention  upon  it.  His  first  read- 
ing will  not  suffice  to  give  him  much  insight.  But  if  he  repeats 
his  reading  of  this  one  page  every  week  for  six  months  he  will 
discover  within  himself  not  only  new  ideas  but  new  faculties. 
While  this  progresses  he  will  be  delighted  to  find  that  other  less 
difficult  works,  which,  however,  formerly  had  required  his  full 
strength  to  master,  have  now  become  quite  easy.  It  is  like  sub- 
stituting for  the  flame  of  an  alcohol-lamp  that  of  an  oxy- 
hydrogen  blowpipe :  the  difficulties  melt  away  before  his  new 
power  of  analysis  disciplined  on  the  dry  and  abstruse  philo- 
sophical work.  By  this  exercise  the  youth  overcomes  that  worst 
of  intellectual  obstacles — the  belief  that  what  he  can  not  under- 
stand at  first  trial  is  permanently  beyond  his  powers: — "My 
mind  was  not  made  for  that  kind  of  work."  The  motto  of  the 
school-room  should  be,  "Each  may  master  the  deepest  and 
wisest  thoughts  that  the  human  race  has  transmitted  to  us." 
Repeated  attacks  by  concentrated  attention  not  only  master 
the  abstruse  problem,  but  leave  the  mind  with  a  permanent 
acquisition  of  power  of  analysis  for  new  problems. — The  biog- 
raphies of  Plutarch  present  well-executed  pictures  of  men  of 


90  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

colossal  characters  placed  in  difficult  situations.  Philosophical 
works,  if  taken  up  in  later  youth,  should  be  classical  treatises  on 
special  problems  of  thought.  Abstracts  and  summaries  are 
generally  to  be  avoided.] 

§  98.  (3)  Imagination  returns  again  within  itself  to 
perception  in  that  it  replaces,  for  .conceptions,  percep- 
tions themselves,  which  are  to  remind  it  of  the  previous 
conception  [as,  fdr  example,  imagination  calls  a  crafty 
man  a  "  fox,"  and  indicates  a  whole  class  of  men  by  this 
symbol.  The  symbol  retains  under  the  new  meaning 
also  the  old  meaning].  These  perceptions  may  resemble 
in  some  way  the  perception  which  lies  at  the  basis  of 
the  conception,  and  be  thus  more  or  less  symbolical ;  or 
they  may  be  merely  arbitrary  creations  of  the  creative 
imagination,  and  are  in  this  case  pure  signs.  [~VVh6n  the 
symbolic  term  loses  its  old  meaning,  and  retains  only  its 
new  meaning,  it  becomes  a  "  pure  sign,"  and  is  no  longer 
a  symbol.  Thus,  a  studious  man  may  be  called  a  "  book- 
worm," which  at  first  would  suggest  the  mite  that  de- 
stroys books,  but'  by-and-by  loses  that  suggestion,  and 
suggests  only  the  concept  of  a  person  devoted  to  books. 
Thus  "  book-worm  "  is  first  a  symbol,  and  then  becomes 
a  mere  conventional  sign  of  a  conception.]  In  common 
speech  and  writing,  we  call  the  free 'retaining  of  these 
perceptions  created  by  imagination,  and  the  recalling  of 
the  conceptions  denoted  t>y  them,  memory.  It  is  by  no 
means  a  particular  faculty  'of  the  mind,  which  is  again 
subdivided  into  memory  of  persons,  names,  numbers, 
etc.  As  to  its  form,  memory  is  the  stage  of  the  disso- 
lution of  image-making  representation ;  but,  as  to  its 
content,  it  arises  from  the  interest  which  we  take  in  a 
subject-matter.  From  this  interest  results  careful  atten- 
tion, and  from  this  latter,  facility  in  the  reproductive 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  91 

imagination.  If  these  acts  have  preceded,  the  fixing  of 
a  name,  or  of  a  number,  in  which  the  content  interesting 
us  is,  as  it  were,  summed  up,  is  not  difficult.  When 
interest  and  attention  animate  us,  it  seems  as  if  we  did 
not  need  to  be  at  all  troubled  to  remember  anything. 
All  the  so-called  mnemonic  helps  only  serve  to  make 
more  difficult  the  act  of  memory.  This  act  is  in  itself 
a  double  function,  consisting  of,  first,  the  fixing  of  the 
sign,  and  second,  the  fixing  of  the  conception  subsumed 
under  it.  Since  the  mnemonic  technique  adds  to  these 
one  more  conception,  through  whose  means  the  things 
with  which  we  have  to  deal  are  to  be  fixed,  it  makes  the 
function  of  remembering  three-fold,  and  forgets  that 
the  connecting  link  and  its  relations  to  the  sign  and  the 
subsumed  conception — wholly  arbitrary  and  highly  arti- 
ficial— must  also  be  remembered.  The  true  aid  for 
memory  consists  in  not  helping  it  at  all,  but  in  simply 
taking  up  the  object  into  the  ideal  regions  of  the  mind 
by  the  force  of  the  infinite  self-determination  which 
mind  possesses  [that  is  to  say,  the  true  help  consists  in 
associating  the  object  with  its  kindred  through  ideas  of 
species  and  genera  or  classes],  • 

Lists  of  names,  as  e.  g.,  of  the  Roman  emperors,  of  the  popes,  of 
the  caliphs,  of  rivers,  mountains,  authors,  cities,  etc. ;  also  numbers, 
as,  e.  g.,  the  multiplication-table,  the  melting-points  of  minerals,  the 
dates  of  battles,  of  births  and  deaths,  etc.,  must  be  learned  without 
aid.  All  indirect  means  only  serve  to  do  harm  here,  and  are  required 
as  self -discovered  devices  only  in  case  that  interest  or  attention  has 
become  weakened. 

[Memory.  The  German  word  G-eddchtniss  is  contrasted  with 
the  word  Erinnerimg  ;  the  former  may  be  translated  "  memory," 
and  the  latter  "  recollection  " — recollection,  the  reproduction  of 
the  perceived  object  in  its  particular  existence,  and  memory  the 
reproduction  of  it  by  its  general  type.  With  the  general  type 


92  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

the  mind  is  able  to  master  the  infinite  diversity  of  nature  and 
reduce  all  to  a  few  classes.  Mnemonic  artifices  are  to  be  es- 
chewed. "  Memory  is  the  stage  of  the  dissolution  of  the  con- 
ception " ;  this  means  that  the  power  of  representation  becomes 
less  and  less,  a  mere  recalling  of  what  has  been  perceived,  and, 
as  the  mind  strengthens,  it  passes  over  into  a  faculty  which  calls 
up  universals,  or  general  concepts  in  the  place  of  particular  im- 
ages. Memory,  in  this  technical  sense,  deals  with  words — each 
word  standing  for  some  universal  concept.  Language  is  there- 
fore something  that  can  be  used  by  a  whole  people — its  words, 
standing,  as  they  do,  for  universals,  express  for  each  individual 
the  contents  of  his  observations,  no  matter  how  peculiar  they 
may  be.  Memory,  as  thus  contradistinguished  from  mere  recol- 
lection, is  therefore  synthetic,  inasmuch  as  it  constructs  or  puts 
together  the  essential  characteristics  of  the  object  in  the  form 
of  a  definition  and  subsumes  objects  perceived  under  it.  While 
recollection  recalls  the  exact  object  which  it  perceived  before, 
memory  recognizes  in  the  object  before  it  its  class  or  species, 
and  thus  recalls  and  adds  to  the  object  the  sum  total  of  previous 
experience  in  regard  to  this  object.  (See  commentary  to  §  84 
for  further  discussion  of  this.  The  difference  between  the  mem- 
ory of  the  scientific  man  and  that  of  the  unscientific  is  there  illus- 
trated.) It  must  not  be  understood  here  that  the  "  definition  " 
implied  in  the  "  word "  is  a  conscious  one.  Most  of  the  words 
we  use  have  never  been  defined  consciously,  that  is  to  say,  we 
have  never  reflected  on  the  definition;  but  we  carry  with  us 
an  unconscious  definition  all  the  same,  and,  when  we  identify  or 
recognize  objects  before  us,  we  use  the  unconscious  definition, 
taking  notice  of  the  features  of  the  object  one  after  the  other,  to 
see  whether  they  correspond  to  the  features  which  we  remember 
as  general  characteristics  of  the  class. 

How  what  is  symbolic  becomes  conventional  is  perhaps  the 
most  interesting  question  in  the  psychology  of  early  education. 
The  child  passes  from  the  symbolical  stage  to  the  conventional 
stage  of  culture,  and  enters  the  stage  of  "  youth  "  in  the  techni- 
cal sense  of  the  word,  as  here  employed.  Conventional  studies, 
like  the  alphabet  and  orthography,  can  not  be  well  taken  up 
until  the  child  has  reached  this  conventional  epoch  of  growth. 
In  the  old  hieroglyphic  system,  the  letter  A  represented  the  face 
of  an  ox,  and  was  symbolic.  Since  the  Phoenicians  transplanted 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  93 

the  alphabet  among  other  peoples,  A  has  been  a  conventional 
sign  for  a  particular  sound. 

Recollection  may  be  cultivated.  A  magnet  will  increase  its 
force  if  a  slight  increase  is  made  daily  to  the  weight  it  supports. 
So  the  memory  of  numbers  and  dates  may  be  indefinitely  in- 
creased by  committing  an  additional  one  or  two  each  day  to 
memory,  and  taking  care  by  frequent  reviews  that  nothing  once 
memorized  shall  escape.  But  equal  care  should  be  taken  not  to 
overburden  the  power  of  recollection  by  undertaking  too  many 
new  items  at  a  time.  Let  the  student  make  a  special  effort  with 
precisely  the  kind  of  recollection  that  he  is  most  deficient  in,  be 
it  names,  dates,  shapes,  or  whatever  it  be,  and  he  will  find  that, 
by  persistent  practice  for  a  few  months,  he  can  bring  the  special 
power  to  the  front.  The  habit  of  attention  to  likeness  and  dif- 
ference, so  that  the  mind  at  once  takes  in  the  species  and  differ- 
entia involuntarily,  is  the  habit  that  secures  good  memory.] 

§  99.  The  means  to  be  used  (and  these  are  based  on 
the  nature  of  memory  itself)  are,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
pronouncing  and  writing  of  the  names. or  numbers,  and, 
on  the  other,  repetition ;  by  the  former  means  we  gain 
distinctness  and  by  the  latter  sureness  of  memory. 

All  artificial  contrivances  for  quickening  the  memory  dwindle  in 
comparison  with  the  art  of  writing,  in  so  far  as  this  is  not  looked 
upon  as  a  means  of  relieving  the  memory.  That  a  name  or  a  num- 
ber should  be  this  or  that,  is  for  the  intelligence  a  mere  result  of 
chance,  an  entirely  meaningless  accident  to  which  we  have  uncondi- 
tionally to  submit  ourselves  as  something  not  dependent  on  our  wills. 
The  intelligence  must  be  accustomed  to  put  upon  itself  this  con- 
straint. In  the  sciences,  especially  in  philosophy,  our  reason  helps  to 
derive  one  thought  from  another  by  means  of  its  dependence  on  it, 
and  we  can  discover  names  through  this  fact  of  dependence  and  deri- 
vation. 

[Repetition  and  the  writing  down  of  names  and  numbers  are 
the  best  means  for  fixing  them  in  the  memory.] 


94  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

% 

CHAPTER  VII. 

INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION,     (a)  Psychology  (continued). 
(3)  The  Logical  Epoch. 

§  100.  IN  representation  by  means  of  mental  im- 
ages there  is  attained  a  general  idea  or  a  notion  in  so 
far  as  the  empirical  details  are  referred  to  a  schema,  as 
Kant  called  it.  But  the  necessity  of  the  connection  of 
the  particular  details  with  the  general  schema  is  wanting 
to  it.  To  develop  this  idea  of  necessity  is  the  task  of 
the  thinking  activity,  which  frees  itself  from  all  mental 
pictures,  and  with  its  clearly  defined  determinations 
transcends  image-concepts.  The  thinking  activity,  there- 
fore, is  emancipated  from  dependence  on  the  senses,  to 
a  higher  degree  than  the v  processes  of  conception  and 
perception.  The  notion,  judgment,  and  syllogism,  de- 
velop forms  which,  as  such,  have  no  power  of  being 
perceived  by  the  senses.  But  it  does  not  follow  from 
this  that  he  who  thinks  can  not  return  out  of  the  think- 
ing activity  and  carry  it  with  him  into  the  sphere  of 
image-concepts  and  perception.  The  true  thinking  ac- 
tivity deprives  itself  of  no  content.  The  form  of  ab- 
straction affecting  a  logical  purism  which  looks  down 
upon  conception  and  perception  as  forms  of  intelligence 
quite  inferior  to  itself  is  a  pseudo-thinking,  a  morbid 
and  scholastic  error.  Education  will  be  the  better  on 
its  guard  against  this  the  more  it  has  led  the  pupil  by 
the  legitimate  road  of  perception  and  conception  to 
thinking.  Memorizing  especially  is  an  excellent  pre- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  95 

paratory  school  for  the  thinking  activity,  because  it 
gives  practice  to  the  intelligence  in  exercising  itself  in 
abstract  ideas. 

[In  the  general  images  of  the  faculty  of  conception,  necessity 
of  connection  is  yet  wanting.  Thinking,  technically  so  called, 
discovers  necessary  relations.  The  logical  distinctions  are  no- 
tions, judgment,  syllogism.  Within  the  notion  are  the  ideas  of 
universal,  particular  and  individual  (or  singular).  The  thinking 
activity  "  returns  "  to  perception  and  conception,  as  illustrated 
in  §  84,  re-enforcing  them.  It  is  important  for  the  teacher  to 
be  able  to  recognize  the  grades  of  simple  perception  from  those 
grades  re-enforced  by  thought  as  explained  in  that  section.  As 
an  example  of  necessary  relations,  take  the  quantitative  phases 
of  any  thing  or  event.  In  every  triangle  the  sum  of  its  three 
angles  is  180°.  Every  circumference  of  a  round  object  is  equal 
to  the  diameter  multiplied  by  3*14159  + .] 

§  101.  The  fostering  of  the  sense  of  truth,  from  the 
earliest  years  up,  is  the  surest  way  of  leading  the  pupil 
to  gain  the  power  of  thinking.  The  unprejudiced,  dis- 
interested yielding  to  truth,  as  well  as  the  effort  to  shun 
all  deception  and  false  seeming,  is  of  the  greatest  value 
in  strengthening  the  power  of  reflection,  as  this  consid- 
ers nothing  of  value  but  the  actually  existing  objective 
interaction  of  things  and  events. 

The  indulging  of  an  illusion  as  a  pleasing  recreation  of  the  intel- 
ligence should  be  allowed,  while  lying  must  not  be  tolerated.  Chil- 
dren have  a  natural  inclination  for  mystifications,  for  masquerades^ 
for  raillery,  and  for  theatrical  performances,  etc.  This  inclination 
to  illusion  is  perfectly  normal  with  them,  and  should  be  permitted. 
The  graceful  kingdom  of  art  is  developed  from  it,  as  also  the  poetry 
of  conversation  with  its  jest  and  wit.  Although  this  sometimes  be- 
comes stereotyped  into  very  prosaic  conventional  forms  of  speech,  it 
is  more  tolerable  than  the  awkward  honesty  which  takes  everything 
in  its  simple  literal  sense.  And  it  is  easy  to  discover  whether  chil- 
dren in  such  play,  in  the  activity  of  free  joyousness,  incline  to  the 
side  of  mischief  by  their  showing  a  desire  of  satisfying  their  selfish 
interest.  Then  they  must  be  checked,  for  in  that  case  the  sprightli- 


96  THE   SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

ness  of  harmless  joking  gives  way  to  gloomy  calculation  and  dissimu- 
lation. 

[A  sense  of  truth  should  be  fostered  from  childhood  up. 
Prejudice  and  self-interest  must  be  habitually  set  aside  for 
the  truth — for  the  perception  of  things  as  they  actually  are. 
Great  care,  therefore,  must  be  exercised  to  prevent  an  undue 
tendency  to  illusions  (the  activity  of  the  productive  imagina- 
tion, however  essential  it  may  be)  from  weakening  the  sense  of 
truth.] 

§  102.  An  acquaintance  with  logical  forms  is  to  be 
recommended  as  a  special  educational  help  in  the  cult- 
ure of  intelligence.  The  study  of  mathematics  does 
not  suffice,  because  it,  itself,  already  presupposes  logic. 
Mathematics  is  related  to  logic  in  the  same  way  as 
grammar,  the  physical  sciences,  etc.  The  logical  forms 
must  be  known  explicitly  in  their  pure  independence 
and  not  merely  in  their  implicit  state  as  immanent  in 
objective  shapes. 

[An  acquaintance  with  logical  forms  is  important  for  the 
thorough  education  of  the  intellect.  Logical  forms  give  the 
archetypes  or  simplest  shapes  of  all  problems  that  occur  else- 
where. Neither  mathematics  nor  any  other  application  of  logic 
in  the  sciences  can  supply  the  place  of  a  logical  training.] 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

INTELLECTUAL   EDUCATION  (continued). 

(5.)  The  Logical  Presupposition,  or  the  Method. 

§  103.  THE  logical  presupposition  of  instruction  i& 
the  order  in  which  the  subject-matter  develops  for  the 
consciousness.  The  subject,  the  consciousness  of  the 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  97 

pupil,  and  the  activity  of  the  instructor,  interpenetrate 
each  other  in  instruction,  and  constitute  in  actuality  one 
whole. 

[Instruction  presupposes  a  certain  logical  order  of  develop- 
ment in  its  theme.  In  arithmetic,  for  example,  fractions  must 
not  be  studied  before  simple  addition.  Political  geography 
should  be  studied  after  mathematical  and  physical  geography ; 
grammar,  after  reading  and  writing ;  general  history  after  the 
history  of  one's  own  country. 

The  three  elements  which  instruction  combines  are:  (1)  the 
subject  to  be  taught ;  (2)  the  consciousness  of  the  pupil ;  (3)  the 
insight  and  labor  of  the  teacher.] 

§  104.  (1)  First  of  all,  the  subject  which  is  to  be 
learned  has  a  specific  determinateness  which  demands 
in  its  exposition  a  certain  fixed  order  of  sequence. 
However  arbitrary  we  may  be,  the  subject  has  a  certain 
determination  of  its  own  which  no  mistreatment  can 
wholly  crush  out,  and  this  inherent  immortal  rationality 
is  the  general  foundation  of  instruction. 

To  illustrate :  however  one  may  handle  a  language  in  teaching 
it,  he  can  not  change  the  words  in  it,  or  the  inflections  of  the  declen- 
sions and  conjugations.  And  the  same  restriction  is  laid  upon  our 
inclinations  in  the  different  divisions  of  natural  history  in  the  theo- 
rems of  arithmetic,  geometry,  etc.  The  theorem  of  Pascal  remains 
still  the  same  theorem  wherever  it  is  set  forth. 

[The  subject  has  a  nature  of  its  own  which  requires  it  to  be 
studied  in  a  certain  definite  order.  Whatever  modifications  are 
made  in  the  subject  to  adapt  it  to  the  immature  mind  of  the 
pupil,  this  essential  nature  of  the  subject  must  not  be  changed. 

As  regards  the  "  logical  presupposition "  above  spoken  of,  it 
is  clear  enough  that  all  subjects  to  be  taught  possess  logical  re- 
lations of  dependence  of  one  part  on  another  and  of  the  parts 
on  the  whole.  There  must  be  therefore  a  certain  order  of  ex- 
position of  the  subject :  the  dependent  parts  must  be  shown  in 
their  dependence,  otherwise  the  subject  will  not  be  taught  prop- 
erly. We  can  not  teach  the  zones  or  parallels  and  meridians 
unless  we  have  previously  taught  the  spherical  form  of  the  earth. 


98  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

Much  change  and  adaptation  will  be  made  by  the  teacher  in 
order  to  make  the  subject  entertaining  to  his  pupil  and  easy  of 
access,  but  the  logical  order  of  dependence  of  one  topic  on  an- 
other within  arithmetic,  geometry,  natural  history,  grammar, 
etc.,  can  not  be  changed ;  he  must  take  it  as  it  is,  for  that  is  its 
intelligible  order  and  must  be  followed.  The  words  of  the 
classic  author  must  be  translated  as  they  stand,  and  not  from 
the  end  backward,  if  we  would  find  sense  in  them.] 

§  105.  (2)  But  the  subject  must  be  adapted  to  the 
consciousness  of  the  pupil,  and  here  the  order  of  pro- 
cedure and  the  exposition  depend  upon  the  stage  which 
he  has  reached  intellectually,  for  the  special  manner  of 
the  instruction  must  be  conditioned  by  this.  If  he  is  in 
the  stage  of  sense-perception,  we  must  use  the  illustra- 
tive method ;  if  in  the  stage  of  image-conception,  that 
of  combination ;  and  if  in  the  stage  of  thinking,  that  of 
demonstration.  The  first  exhibits  the  object  directly, 
or  some  representation  of  it;  the  second  considers  it 
according  to  the  different  possibilities  which  exist  in  it, 
and  turns  it  around  on  all  sides  (and  examines  its  rela- 
tions to  other  things) ;  the  third  demonstrates  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  relations  in  which  it  stands  either  with  it- 
self or  with  others.  This  is  the  natural  order  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  developing  intelligence :  first,  the  ob- 
ject is  presented  to  the  perception ;  then  combination 
with  other  things  shows  its  relations  and  presents  its 
different  phases  ;  and,  finally,  the  thinking  activity  cir- 
cumscribes the  restlessly  moving  reflection  by  the  idea 
of  necessity.  Experiment  in  the  method  of  combina- 
tion is  an  excellent  means  for  a  discovery  of  relations, 
for  a  sharpening  of  the  attention,  for  the  arousing  of  a 
many-sided  interest ;  but  it  is  no  true  dialectic,  though 
it  be  often  denoted  by  that  name. 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  99 

Illustration  is  especially  necessary  in  the  natural  sciences  and 
also  in  aesthetics,  because  both  of  these  departments  appeal  to  sense- 
perception.  [Omission  here  of  reference  to  editions  of  atlases  and 
wall-maps.] 

[With  regard  to  the  second  point  mentioned  above — the  con- 
sciousness of  the  pupil  or  his  grade  of  advancement,  this  too 
must  be  considered,  as  well  as  the  logical  order  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  subject.  Inasmuch  as  instruction  is  a  leading  of 
the  ignorant  into  knowledge  by  translating  the  unknown  into 
the  known,  there  are  two  factors  involved:  (a)  the  unknown 
subject;  (b)  the  stock  of  knowledge  already  possessed  by  the 
pupil.  The  knowledge  already  possessed  is  the  means  by  which 
the  unknown  can  be  grasped  and  retained.  All  learning  is  a 
translating  of  an  unknown  into  a  known,  just  as  the  learning 
of  a  foreign  language  proceeds  by  translating  the  unfamiliar 
words  into  familiar  words  and  thereby  changing  the  strange 
into  the  familiar.  This  being  so,  unless  constant  reference  is 
had  by  the  teacher  to  the  stock  of  familiar  ideas  belonging  to 
the  pupil,  there  is  imminent  danger  to  instruction ;  it  may  pass 
off  into  the  process  of  exchanging  unknown  words  for  unknown 
words — a  movement  entirely  within  the  realm  of  the  unfamiliar. 
Such  a  process  is  not  instruction,  whatever  else  it  may  be.  Thus 
the  method  of  instruction  must  be  largely  determined  by  the 
consciousness  (what  he  knows)  or  stage  of  advancement  of  the 
pupil.  If  the  pupil  is  young  and  has  few  ideas  of  abstract 
depth,  but  mostly  ideas  of  objects  perceived  by  the  senses,  then 
the  method  must  be  one  of  illustration.  It  must  translate  the 
subject  into  particular  objects  of  sense-perception  so  far  as  this 
is  possible.  If  such  a  process  is  not  possible  with  a  given  branch 
of  instruction,  then  that  branch  must  not  be  taken  up  now ;  its 
logical  presupposition  requires  it  to  be  preceded  by  other 
studies. 

If  the  pupil  has  reached  the  stage  of  thinking  by  means  of 
mental  images  or  pictures  of  the  mind  (Vorstellungen),  then  the 
method  may  be  less  illustrative  and  may  combine  objects  and 
symbolize  to  some  extent  (as  in  fairy-stories,  or  as  in  any  stories 
when  the  objects  used  are  types  of  whole  classes  of  objects); 
or,  in  the  stage  of  reflection  there  may  be  demonstration  or  the 
showing  up  of  logical  necessity,  or  the  relations  of  cause  and 
effect,  or  of  power  and  manifestation,  or  of  fact  and  logical  pre- 


100  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS   OP  EDUCATION. 

supposition,  or  any  logical  relation  the  object  may  have  to  other 
objects  or  to  the  whole  environment  in  which  it  is  found. 

These  three  stages  make  up  the  range  of  the  "  consciousness  " 
of  the  pupil — he  may  be  in  the  (a)  first  stage,  and  mere  percep- 
tion or  beholding  of  external  objects  be  his  chief  mental  ac- 
tivity, or  (b)  he  may  be  active  in  representing  objects,  that  is  to 
say,  active  in  his  fancy,  imagination,  or  recollections ;  or  (c)  ac- 
tive in  discovering  relations  between  objects,  and  hence  active 
in  the  application  of  such  abstract  conceptions  as  identity  and 
difference,  likeness  and  unlikeness,  force  and  manifestation, 
whole  and  parts,  cause  and  effect,  thing  and  properties,  etc. 

"  Combination,"  spoken  of  in  the  text,  means  the  considera- 
tion of  the  various  phases  and  properties  of  the  subject  under 
different  relations.  It  is  necessary  to  multiply  the  examples 
and  see  the  object  under  new  combinations  in  order  to  discover 
all  of  the  possibilities  in  it.  The  individual  oak-tree  before  us 
is  only  one  of  infinite  possible  examples  of  the  oak,  and,  as 
each  actual  oak  differs  from  every  other  in  some  respect,  we 
learn  some  new  possibility  with  each  new  specimen.  Thus  we 
add  or  combine  by  experience  the  possibilities  which  together 
make  up  the  nature  or  entire  being  of  an  object.  Water  is 
easily  discovered  to  have  three  states — liquid,  solid  (as  ice),  and 
aeriform  (as  steam).  It  is  only  one  of  these  states  at  a  time,  and 
all  only  in  succession.  Hence  the  necessity  of  "  combination  " 
or  of  discovery  of  different  relations  or  of  the  behavior  of  the  ob- 
ject under  different  "  combinations  "  or  environments,  in  order 
to  learn  its  totality  of  possible  being.  The  idea  of  necessity  ar- 
rives when  one  has  reached  a  totality  of  "  combination."  This 
may  be  reached  only  relatively  in  the  realm  of  experience ;  we 
may  treat  the  total  of  states  actually  discovered  thus  far  as  the 
absolute  totality — this  we  do  as  a  fact  in  practical  experience, 
e.  g.,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  treat  water  as  though  it  had  only  three 
possible  states,  liquid,  solid,  and  gaseous.  But  the  true  absolute 
necessity  comes  only  from  the  logical  side  of  presupposition. 
Every  fact  has  a  presupposition  which  is  the  logical  condition 
of  its  existence.  This  oak-tree  presupposes  space  and  time,  and 
could  not  exist  without  them.  All  the  properties  that  follow 
from  the  nature  of  space  and  time  may  be  named  as  logical  con- 
ditions absolutely  necessary  to  the  existence  of  the  oak-tree. 

"Experiment  in  the  method  of  combination  is  an  excellent 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION. 

means  for  the  discovery  of  relations,"  but  "  it  is  no  true  dialec- 
tic," or,  in  other  words,  it  does  not  discover  the  inward  necessity 
which  appertains  only  to  the  logical  presupposition,  because  the 
dialectical  method  does  not  make  combinations  or  experiments 
at  hap-hazard,  but  by  careful  analysis  and  observation  of  the 
object  discovers  in  what  manner  its  essential  properties  demand 
or  presuppose  other  objects.  Given  one  object,  it  unfolds  the 
system  to  which  it  belongs.  The  dialectic  proceeds  from  the 
part  to  the  whole,  following  the  thread  of  dependence  which 
may  be  discovered  in  any  object. 

In  aesthetics,  or  the  science  of  art  (architecture,  sculpture, 
painting,  and  music),  illustration  is  necessary,  because  presenta- 
tion to  the  senses  is  essential  to  the  nature  of  art. 

§  106.  The  demonstrative  method,  in  order  to  bring 
about  its  proof  of  necessity,  has  a  choice  of  many  differ- 
ent ways.  But  we  must  not  imagine,  either  that  there 
are  an  unlimited  number,  and  that  it  is  only  a  chance 
which  one  we  shall  take ;  or  that  they  have  no  connec- 
tion among  themselves,  and  run,  as  it  were,  side  by  side. 
It  is  not,  however,  the  business  of  pedagogics  to  develop 
different  methods  of  proof ;  this  belongs  to  logic.  We 
have  only  to  remember  that,  logically  taken,  proof  must 
be  analytic,  synthetic,  or  dialectic.  Analysis  begins 
with  the  single  individual,  and  leads  out  from  it  by  in- 
duction to  the  general  principle  from  which  its  exist- 
ence results.  Synthesis,  on  the  contrary,  begins  with  a 
general  which  is  presupposed  as  true,  and  leads  from 
this  through  deduction  to  the  special  determinations 
which  were  implicit  in  it.  The  regressive  search  of 
analysis  for  a  determining  principle  is  invention  /  the 
forward  progress  of  synthesis  from  the  simple  elements 
seeking  for  the  multiplicity  of  single  individuals  is  con- 
struction. The  former  method  has  been  called  the  heu- 
ristic [from  the  Greek  word  for  to  discover,  evpeiv]  ;  the 


102  THE  SPECIAL 'CEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

latter,  the  architectonic.  Each,  in  its  result,  passes  over 
into  the  other ;  but  their  truth  is  found  in  the  dialectic 
method,  which  in  each  phase  allows  unity  (of  principle) 
to  separate  into  diversity  (of  particulars),  and  diversity 
to  return  into  unity.  While  in  the  analytic  as  well  as 
in  the  synthetic  method  the  mediation  of  the  individual 
with  the  general,  or  of  the  general  with  the  individual, 
brings  in  the  phase  of  particularity  as  only  subjectively 
connected  with  it,  in  the  dialectic  method  we  have  the 
going  over  of  the  general  through  the  particular  to  the 
individual,  or  to  the  self-determination  of  the  idea,  and 
it  therefore  rightly  claims  the  title  of  the  "genetic" 
method.  We  can  also  say  that  while  the  inventive 
method  gives  us  the  idea  (notion)  and  the  constructive 
the  judgment,  the  genetic  gives  us  the  syllogism  which 
leads  the  determinations  of  reflection  back  again  into 
substantial  identity. 

[The  demonstrative  method  deals  with  necessary  relations, 
and  uses  the  forms  of  demonstration  furnished  it  by  logic, 
namely,  analytic,  synthetic,  or  dialectic.  Analytic  demonstra- 
tion, according  to  Rosenkranz,  begins  with  some  object,  as  a 
whole,  and  proceeds  to  find  its  derivation  or  dependence  on  some- 
thing else,  and  thus  gradually  leads  out  to  the  idea  of  that  larger 
whole  in  which  the  object  exists  as  a  part  (invention).  Synthetic 
demonstration,  on  the  other  hand,  proceeds  from  a  principle  to 
the  particular  results  that  follow  from  it  (construction).  "  Each 
of  these  passes  over  into  the  other  in  its  result,"  i.  e.,  the  result 
of  analysis  is  synthesis,  because  in  our  analysis  of  the  object  we 
discovered  dependence  and  derivation,  and  hence  discovered  that 
it  was  not  a  true  whole  or  totality,  but  involved  something  else 
— hence  we  found  that  the  compass  of  its  being  was  greater  than 
we  had  at  first  supposed— we  have  added  to  it,  and  our  analysis 
proves  to  have  been  synthesis  rather. 

So,  too,  synthesis  or  construction  is  really  an  analysis«of  the 
constituent  elements  of  the  principle.  By  deducing  (analyzing) 
what  is  given  us  in  the  principle,  we  discover  the  results  or  spe- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  103 

cial  characteristics  that  the  principle  produces ;  hence  we  rise  to 
the  idea  of  the  total,  which  includes  both  the  principle  and  its 
results,  and  the  demonstration  involves  both  analysis  and  syn- 
thesis. 

The  one-sided  methods  of  analysis  and  synthesis  are  therefore 
always  united  in  fact,  although  they  seem  to  be  separate  when  we 
consider  them  abstractly ;  we  find  them  to  be  dialectic  methods, 
therefore,  if  we  look  upon  both  of  the  phases  of  their  activity. 
In  the  former  (analytic),  diversity  returns  to  unity — the  sub- 
ordinate unities  are  traced  back  to  their  higher  unity,  or  in  the 
latter  (synthesis)  unity  separates  into  diversity ;  the  higher  unity 
gives  rise  to  lower  unities.  In  the  analytic  method  there  is  a 
"  mediation  of  the  individual "  object  with  the  general  object, 
i.  e.,  a  tracing  of  the  relations  of  the  individual  to  other  individ- 
uals with  which  it  forms  a  totality  or  higher  unity.  In  the  syn- 
thetic method  there  is  a  "  mediation  of  the  general  or  total  with 
the  particular  object,"  because  we  see  how  a  force,  power,  energy, 
or  principle  develops  particular  forms.  In  both  of  these,  when 
considered  superficially  or  inadequately  and  one-sidedly,  there 
is  only  a  subjective  connection  stated  between  the  particulars 
and  the  general — "  subjective  connection  "  meaning  a  connection 
only  in  our  minds,  and  not  an  essential  connection  which  would 
be  one  existing  in  the  object  as  a  real  dependence  upon  other 
objects.  In  the  dialectic  method,  or  in  the  method  which  sees 
both  synthesis  and  analysis  in  each  step,  we  see  in  every  phase 
the  principle  of  self -activity,  because  we  see  that  the  subordinate 
objects  arise  through  the  energy  of  the  totality,  and  the  energy 
of  the  totality  produces  the  subordinate  phases  and  unities.  All 
totalities  must  be  self-determined  or  self -active,  because  they  can 
not  be  at  the  same  time  totalities  and  depend  on  anything  be- 
yond them  for  their  movement  or  form.  This  self-active  totality 
is  called  by  the  Hegelian  philosophy  (from  which  Eosenkranz 
borrows  it)  "the  self-determination  of  the  notion  (Begriff)  or 
idea,"  because  in  that  philosophy  the  technical  term  for  self- 
activity  is  Begriff  (idea  or  notion).  Inasmuch  as  it  shows  self- 
activity  as  the  principle  that  connects  the  general  with  the  par- 
ticular, and  hence  explains  all  things  through  evolution,  it 
"  rightly  claims  the  title  of  genetic  (or  development)  method." 

"  The  inventive  or  analytic  method  gives  us  the  idea  or  notion  " 
(Begriff),  because  it  proceeds  beyond  the  particular  object  to  its 
12 


104:           THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

genesis  in  a  higher  unity  whose  energy  or  self -activity  has  pro- 
duced it;  it  has  therefore  explained  the  object  through  self- 
activity  (Begriff). 

"The  constructive  method  (synthetic)  gives  the  judgment 
(Urtheil)"  In  Hegelian  technique,  the  distinction  arising 
through  self-activity  (distinction  into  active  and  passive  or  actor 
and  acted  upon)  in  the  notion  (Begriff)  is  called  judgment  ( Ur- 
theil). 

The  analytic  method  leads  us  back  to  self-activity  (Begriff, 
notion).  The  synthetic  method  leads  us  to  distinction  of  uni- 
versal and  individual  (Urtheil,  judgment).  The  genetic  method 
leads  us  to  syllogism  (Schluss).  In  the  same  system  of  philoso- 
phy, Schluss,  or  syllogism,  is  the  technical  term  for  the  unity  of 
all  the  phases  of  self -activity,  and  includes  the  universal  or  self- 
active,  and  the  particular  (or  distinguished  phases  of  active  and 
passive  that  form  an  antithesis),  and  it  is  the  unity  of  these  two, 
or  that  which  is  self-identical  and  self -distinct  in  one  act  (just 
as  mind  or  consciousness  is  subject  and  object  of  itself).] 

§  107.  (3)  The  living  mediation  of  the  pupil  with 
the  content  which  is  to  be  impressed  upon  his  conscious- 
ness is  the  work  of  the  teacher,  whose  personality  cre- 
ates an  individual  or  peculiar  method ;  for,  however 
clearly  the  subject  may  be  defined,  however  exactly  the 
psychological  stage  of  the  pupil  may  be  regulated,  the 
teacher  can  not  do  away  with  his  own  individuality 
even  in  the  most  objective  relations.  This  individuality 
must  penetrate  the  whole  with  its  own  exposition,  and 
that  peculiarity  which  we  call  his  manner,  and  which 
can  not  be  determined  a  priori,  must  appear.  The 
teacher  must  place  himself  on  the  standpoint  of  the  pu- 
pil, i.  e.,  he  must  adapt  himself ;  he  must  see  that  the 
abstract  is  made  clear  to  him  in  the  concrete,  i.  e.,  he 
must  illustrate ;  he  must  fill  up  the  gaps  which  will  cer- 
tainly appear,  and  which  may  mar  the  thorough  seizing 
of  the  subject,  i.  e.,  he  must  supply.  In  all  these  rela- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  105 

tions  the  pedagogical  tact  of  the  teacher  may  prove  it- 
self truly  ingenious  in  varying  the  method  according  to 
the  changefulness  of  the  ever-varying  needs,  in  contract- 
ing or  expanding  the  extent,  in  omitting  or  accumulat- 
ing examples,  in  stating,  or  only  indicating,  what  is  to 
be  supplied.  The  true  teacher  is  free  from  any  super- 
stitious belief  in  any  one  procedure  as  a  sure  specific 
which  he  follows  always  in  a  monotonous  bondage. 
This  freedom  can  only  be  enjoyed  by  him  who  is  capa- 
ble of  the  highest  method.  The  teacher  has  arrived  at 
the  highest  point  of  ability  in  teaching  when  he  can 
make  use  of  all  means,  from  the  loftiness  of  solemn 
seriousness,  through  smooth  statement,  to  the  play  of 
jest — yes,  even  to  the  incentive  of  irony,  and  to  humor. 

Education  can  be  in  nothing  more  ostentatious  than  in  its 
method,  and  it  is  here  that  charlatanism  can  most  readily  intrude 
itself.  Every  little  change,  every  pitiful  modification,  is  proclaimed 
aloud  as  a  new  or  an  improved  method ;  and  even  the  most  foolish 
and  superficial  changes  find  at  once  their  imitators,  who  themselves 
conceal  their  effrontery  behind  some  trifling  differences,  and,  with 
ridiculous  conceit,  hail  themselves  as  inventors. 

["  The  living  mediation  of  the  pupil,"  etc.  "  Mediation  "  here 
refers  to  the  adjustment  and  adaptation  of  the  subjects  taught 
to  the  pupil,  so  as  to  suit  his  intellectual  and  moral  capacity  and 
meet  his  special  difficulties.  The  teacher  adopts  his  own  method 
within  limits.  He  finds  that  his  capacity  and  peculiarities  make 
it  most  convenient  to  lead  the  pupil  to  his  task  in  this  way 
rather  than  in  that  way.  But  all  teachers  must  (a)  keep  in  view 
the  standpoint  of  the  pupil,  (b)  use  illustration,  (c)  supply  neces- 
sary steps  to  make  the  connection  clear  to  the  pupil.  The  live 
teacher  is  careful  to  avoid  being  hampered  by  the  limits  of  any 
one  method,  although  he  finds  use  for  all  on  occasions.] 


106          THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 
CHAPTER  IX. 

INTELLECTUAL   EDUCATION  (continued). 

(c)  Instruction. 

§  108.  ALL  instruction  starts  from  the  inequality  be- 
tween those  who  possess  knowledge  and  ability  and 
those  who  have  not  yet  obtained  them.  The  former  are 
qualified  to  teach,  the  latter  to  learn.  Instruction  is  the 
act  which  gradually  cancels  the  original  inequality  of 
teacher  and  pupil,  in  that  it  converts  what  was  at  first 
the  property  of  the  former  into  the  property  of  the  lat- 
ter by  means  of  his  own  activity. 

[Instruction  presupposes  two  parties,  one  possessing  knowledge 
and  ability,  and  the  other  lacking  them.] 

(1)  The  Subjects  of  Instruction. 

§  109.  The  pupil  is  the  apprentice,  the  teacher  the 
master,  whether  in  the  practice  of  any  craft  or  art,  or  in 
the  exposition  of  any  systematic  knowledge.  The  pupil 
passes  from  the  state  of  the  apprentice  to  that  of  the 
master  through  that  of  the  journeyman.  The  appren- 
tice has  to  appropriate  to  himself  the  elements;  jour- 
neyman ship  begins,  by  means  of  their  possession,  to  be- 
come independent ;  the  master  combines  with  his  tech- 
nical skill  the  freedom  of  production.  His  authority 
over  his  pupil  consists  only  in  his  knowledge  and  ability. 
If  he  has  not  these,  no  external  support,  no  trick  of  false 
appearances  which  he  may  put  on,  will  serve  to  create 
it  for  him. 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  107 

[Distinction  of  three  stages :  (a)  apprenticeship,  (b)  journey- 
manship,  (c)  mastership — after  the  old  distinction  of  degrees  of 
perfection  in  the  trades.] 

§  110.  These  stages — (1)  apprenticeship,  (2)  journey- 
manship,  (3)  mastership — are  fixed  limitations  in  the  di- 
dactic process;  but  they  are  relative  in  the  concrete. 
The  standard  of  special  excellence  varies  with  the  dif- 
ferent grades  of  culture,  and  must  be  varied  that  it  may 
have  validity  for  each  period  of  time.  The  master  is 
complete  only  in  relation  to  the  journeyman  and  ap- 
prentice; to  them  he  is  superior.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  relation  to  the  infinity  of  the  problems  of  his 
art  or  science,  he  is  by  no  means  complete ;  to  himself 
he  must  appear  as  one  who  begins  ever  anew,  one  who 
is  ever  striving,  one  to  whom  a  new  problem  ever  rises 
from  every  achieved  result.  He  can  not  discharge  him- 
self from  work,  he  must  never  desire  to  rest  on  his 
laurels.  He  is  the  truest  master  whose  finished  per- 
formances only  force  him  on  to  never-resting  progress. 

[The  standard  of  mastership  varies  with  the  demands  of  the 
age  or  nation.  In  judging  a  particular  example,  we  must  always 
take  the  standard  into  consideration.  The  true  master  always 
regards  himself  an  apprentice  before  the  new  problems  that  step 
forth  out  of  the  solution  of  the  old  ones.] 

§  111.  The  possibility  of  culture  is  found  in  general, 
it  is  true,  in  every  human  being ;  nevertheless,  as  a  prac- 
tical matter,  there  are  distinguished :  (1)  incapacity,  as 
the  want  of  all  gifts ;  (2)  mediocrity ;  (3)  talent  and 
genius.  It  is  the  part  of  psychology  to  give  an  account 
of  all  these.  Mediocrity  characterizes  the  great  mass 
of  intelligences  that  are  merely  mechanical,  and  that 
wait  for  external  impulse  as  to  what  direction  their  en- 
deavors shall  take.  Not  without  truth,  perhaps,  may 


108  THE   SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

we  hypothetically  presuppose  a  special  talent  in  each 
individual,  but  this  special  talent  in  many  men  never 
makes  its  appearance,  because  under  the  circumstances 
in  which  it  finds  itself  placed  it  fails  to  find  the  exciting 
occasion  which  shall  give  them  the  knowledge  of  its  ex- 
istence. The  majority  of  mankind  are  contented  with 
the  mechanical  impulse  which  makes  them  into  some- 
thing, and  impresses  upon  them  certain  characteristics. 
Talent  shows  itself  by  means  of  the  confidence  in  its 
own  especial  productive  possibility,  which  manifests  it- 
self as  an  inclination,  or  as  a  strong  impulse,  to  occupy 
itself  with  the  special  object  which  constitutes  the  ob- 
ject of  its  ability.  Education  has  no  difficulty  in  dealing 
with  mechanical  natures,  because  their  passivity  is  only 
too  ready  to  follow  prescribed  patterns.  It  is  more  dif- 
ficult to  manage  talent,  because  it  lies  between  medioc- 
rity and  genius,  and  is  therefore  uncertain,  and  not  only 
unequal  to  itself,  but  also  is  tossed  now  too  low,  now 
too  high,  is  by  turns  despondent  and  over-excited.  The 
general  maxim  for  dealing  with  it  is  to  spare  it  no  diffi- 
culty that  lies  in  the  subject  to  which  its  efforts  are  di- 
rected. Genius  must  be  treated  much  in  the  same  way 
as  talent.  The  difference  consists  only  in  this,  that 
genius,  with  a  premonition  of  its  creative  power,  usually 
manifests  its  decision  with  less  doubt  for  a  special  prov- 
ince of  activity,  and,  with  a  more  intense  thirst  for  cult- 
ure, subjects  itself  more  willingly  to  the  demands  of 
instruction.  Genius  is  in  its  nature  the  purest  self-de- 
termination, in  that  it  feels,  in  its  own  inner  existence, 
the  necessity  which  exists  in  the  object  to  which  it  de- 
votes itself ;  it  lives,  as  it  were,  in  its  object.  But  it 
can  create  no  valid  place  for  the  new  idea,  which  is  in  it 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  109 

already  immediately  and  subjectively,  if  it  has  not  united 
itself  to  the  already  existing  culture  as  its  objective  pre- 
supposition ;  on  this  ground  it  thankfully  receives  in- 
struction. 

[Abstractly  speaking,  each  human  being  has  the  possibility  in 
him  of  every  talent  that  has  appeared  or  will  appear  in  the 
human  race.  But,  practically,  there  is  immense  difference  in 
the  facility  with  which  individuals  can  realize  this  possibility. 
Hence  we  have  the  scale :  (1)  incapacity  (pure  dunce) ;  (2)  medi- 
ocrity (mechanical  intelligence,  who  can  do  the  average  task  as 
others  do) ;  (3)  the  talent  and  genius  who  have  great  self -activity. 
The  talent  has  an  inclination  to  his  vocation,  but  is  not  perfectly 
clear  as  to  all  of  the  means  that  lead  to  it ;  does  not  value  indus- 
try as  much  as  he  ought,  or  despises  the  methods  discovered  be- 
fore him.  The  genius  is  clear  as  to  methods — sees  all  that  has 
been  as  tools  and  materials  out  of  which  to  build  his  ideals— and 
therefore  works  with  a  passion.] 

§  112.  But  talent  and  genius  offer  a  special  difficulty 
to  education  in  the  precocity  which  often  accompanies 
them.  But  by  precocity  we  do  not  mean  that  they 
early  render  themselves  perceptible,  since  the  early 
manifestation  of  gifts  by  talent  and  genius,  through 
their  intensity  of  decision  and  self-confidence,  is  to  be 
looked  at  as  perfectly  legitimate.  But  precocity  is 
rather  the  hastening  forward  of  the  human  being  in 
feeling  and  moral  sense,  so  that,  where  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  nature  we  should  have  a  child,  we  have  a 
youth,  and  a  man  in  the  place  of  a  youth.  We  may 
therefore  find  precocity  among  those  who  belong  to  the 
class  of  mediocrity,  but  it  is  developed  most  readily 
among  those  possessed  of  talent  and  genius,  because 
with  them  the  early  appearance  of  superior  gifts  may 
very  easily  bring  in  its  train  a  derangement  of  the  feel- 
ings and  the  moral  nature.  Education  must  deal  with 


HO          THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

it  in  so  far  as  it  is  inharmonious,  and  reminds  us  of  the 
pourri  avant  cFetre  muri,  and  see  to  it  strictly  that 
the  demands  made  on  it  from  without  shall  not  minister 
to  vanity ;  and  must  take  care,  in  order  to  accomplish 
this,  that  social  naturalness  and  lack  of  affectation  be 
preserved  in  the  pupil. 

Our  age  has  to  combat  this  precocity  much  more  than  others. 
We  find,  e.  g.,  authors,  who,  at  the  age  of  thirty  years,  in  which  they 
publish  their  collected  works  or  write  their  biography,  are  chilly 
with  the  feelings  of  old  age.  .  .  .  Music  has  been  the  sphere  in  which 
the  earliest  development  of  talent  has  shown  itself,  and  here  we  find 
the  absurdity  that  the  cupidity  of  parents  has  so  forced  early  talents 
that  children  of  four  or  five  years  of  age  have  been  made  to  appear 
in  public. 

[Precocity  denned :  not  intense  self-confidence,  but  the  omis- 
sion of  some  natural  stage  of  development.  Education  must 
take  care  that  its  vanity  is  not  encouraged,  and  do  all  in  its 
power  to  prevent  aifectation  and  self -consciousness,  which  de- 
stroy the  proper  relation  of  the  pupil  to  his  fellows.] 

§  113.  Every  sphere  of  culture  contains  a  certain 
quantity  of  knowledge  and  ready  skill  which  may  be 
looked  at,  as  it  were,  as  the  created  result  of  the  cult- 
ure. It  is  desirable  that  every  one  who  turns  his  atten- 
tion to  a  certain  line  of  culture  should  take  up  into  him- 
self the  traditional  learning  which  controls  it.  In  so  far 
as  he  does  this,  he  is  professionally  educated.  The  con- 
sciousness that  one  has  in  the  usual  way  gone  through  a 
school  of  art  or  science,  and  has  been  made  familiar  with 
the  general  inheritance  of  the  acquisitions  of  a  special 
department,  creates  externally  a  salutary  composure 
which  is  very  favorable  to  internal  progress.  "We  must 
distinguish  from  the  professionally  educated  the  dilettant 
and  the  self-taught  man.  The  dilettant  or  amateur  busies 
himself  with  an  art,  a  science,  or  a  trade,  from  free  incli- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  HI 

nation,  without  having  gone  through  any  strict  training 
in  it.  As  a  rule,  he  dispenses  with  elementary  thorough- 
ness, and  hastens  toward  the  enjoyment  which  produc- 
tion gives.  The  conscious  amateur  confesses  this  him- 
self, makes  no  pretension  to  mastership,  and  calls  him- 
self— in  distinction  from  the  professional,  who  subjects 
himself  to  rules — a  tyro.  But  the  self-deluded  dilet- 
tant,  on  the  contrary,  conceals  his  weakness,  cherishes  in 
himself  the  self-conceit  that  he  is  equal  to  the  heroes  of 
his  art  or  science,  constitutes  himself  the  first  admirer 
of  his  own  performances,  explains  their  want  of  suc- 
cess by  accidental  circumstances,  never  by  their  own 
want  of  excellence ;  and,  if  he  has  money,  or  edits  a 
paper,  is  intoxicated  with  being  the  patron  of  talent 
which  produces  such  works  as  he  would  willingly  pro- 
duce or  pretends  to  produce.  The  self-taught  man 
has  often  true  talent,  or  even  genius,  to  whose  develop- 
ment nevertheless  the  inherited  culture  has  been  denied, 
and  who  by  good  fortune  has  through  his  own  strength 
worked  his  way  into  a  field  of  effort.  The  self-taught 
man  is  distinguished  from  the  amateur  by  the  thorough- 
ness and  the  industry  with  which  he  acts :  he  is  not 
only  equally  unfortunate  with  him  in  the  absence  of 
school-training,  but  is  much  less  assisted  by  advice  of 
the  competent.  Even  if  the  self-taught  man  has  for 
years  studied  and  practiced  much,  he  is  still  haunted  by 
a  feeling  of  uncertainty  as  to  whether  he  has  yet  reached 
the  standpoint  at  which  a  science,  an  art,  or  a  trade, 
will  receive  him  publicly.  It  is  of  very  great  conse- 
quence that  man  should  be  comprehended  and  recog- 
nized by  man.  The  self-taught  man,  therefore,  remains 
embarrassed,  and  does  not  free  himself  from  the  appre- 


112  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

hension  that  he  may  expose  some  weak  point  to  a  pro- 
fessional, or  he  falls  into  the  other  extreme — he  be- 
comes presumptuous,  steps  forth  as  a  reformer,  and,  if 
he  accomplishes  nothing,  or  earns  only  ridicule,  he  sets 
himself  down  as  a  martyr  unrecognized  by  an  unap- 
preciative  and  unjust  world. 

It  is  possible  that  the  dilettant  may  get  beyond  the  stage  of  su- 
perficiality and  subject  himself  to  a  thorough  training ;  then  he  ceases 
to  be  a  dilettant.  It  is  also  possible  that  the  self-taught  man  may  be 
on  the  right  track,  and  may  accomplish  as  much  as,  or  even  more  than, 
one  trained  in  the  usual  way.  In  general,  however,  it  is  very  desir- 
able that  every  one  should  go  through  the  regular  course  of  the  in- 
herited means  of  education,  partly  that  he  may  be  thorough  in  the 
elements,  partly  to  free  him  from  the  anxiety  which  he  may  feel  lest 
he  in  his  solitary  efforts  spend  labor  on  some  superfluous  work — su- 
perfluous because  done  long  before,  and  of  which  he,  through  the  ac- 
cident of  his  want  of  culture,  had  not  heard.  We  must  all  learn  by 
ourselves,  but  we  can  not  teach  ourselves.  Only  genius  can  do  this, 
for  it  must  be  its  own  leader  in  the  new  paths  which  it  opens.  Gen- 
ius alone  passes  beyond  where  inherited  culture  ceases.  It  bears 
this  in  itself  as  of  the  past,  and  uses  it  as  material  for  its  new  crea- 
tion ;  but  the  self-taught  man,  who  may  possibly  be  a  genius,  wastes 
his  time  in  doing  things  already  accomplished,  or  sinks  into  eccen- 
tricity, into  secret  arts  and  sciences,  etc. 

[The  professionally  educated,  the  dilettant  or  amateur,  and 
the  self-taught,  (a)  The  professionally  educated  masters  thor- 
oughly what  the  experience  of  the  race  has  transmitted  to  his 
own  specialty,  and  hence  increases  his  own  stature  by  standing 
on  the  shoulders  of  the  human  race,  (b)  The  dilettant  wishes 
to  eat  of  the  kernel  without  breaking  the  shell,  and  is  a  sort  of 
futile  individual  who  amuses  himself  by  producing  what  is  good 
for  nothing  when  produced,  (c)  The  self-taught  man  works 
with  great  industry  and  thoroughness,  but  has  not  access  to  the 
best  means,  i.  e.,  the  traditional  culture  of  the  race  as  taught  in 
the  schools.  lie  works  under  embarrassment,  haunted  with  the 
feeling  that  the  professionally  educated  see  defects  in  his  train- 
ing, or,  throwing  off  his  embarrassment,  he  plays  the  role  of 
"  reformer,"  and  becomes  imbittered  against  the  world.] 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  113 

§  114.  These  ideas  of  the  general  steps  of  culture,  of 
special  gifts,  and  of  the  ways  of  culture  appropriate  to 
each,  which  we  have  set  forth  above,  have  a  manifold 
connection  with  each  other  which  can  not  be  established 
a  priori.  We  can,  however,  remark  that  apprenticeship, 
the  mechanical  intelligence  and  the  professional  educa- 
tion ;  secondly,  journeymanship,  talent,  and  dilettante- 
ism  ;  and,  finally,  mastership,  genius,  and  self-education, 
have  a  relationship  to  each  other. 

[Correspondence  (a)  between  apprenticeship,  mechanical  intel- 
ligence, and  professional  education;  also  (b)  between  journey- 
manship, talent,  and  dilettanteism ;  (c)  between  mastership, 
genius,  and  self -education.] 


CHAPTER  X. 

INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION,    (c)  Instruction  (continued). 

(2)  The  Act  of  Learning. 

§  115.  IN  the  process  of  instruction  the  interaction 
between  pupil  and  teacher  must  be  so  managed  that  the 
exposition  by  the  teacher  shall  excite  in  the  pupil  the  im- 
pulse to  reproduction.  The  teacher  must  not  treat  his 
exposition  as  if  it  were  a  work  of  art  which  is  its  own 
end  and  aim,  but  he  must  always  bear  in  mind  the  need 
of  the  pupil.  The  artistic  exposition,  as  such,  will,  by 
its  completeness,  produce  admiration ;  but  the  didactic, 
on  the  contrary,  will,  through  its  perfect  adaptation, 
call  out  the  imitative  instinct,  the  power  of  new  creation. 

From  this  consideration  we  may  justify  the  frequent  statement 
that  is  made,  that  teachers  who  have  an  elegant  diction  do  not  really 


THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

accomplish  so  much  as  others  who  resemble  in  their  statements  less 
a  canal  flowing  smoothly  between  straight  banks  than  a  river  which 
works  its  foaming  way  over  rocks  and  between  ever-shifting  banks. 
The  pupil  perceives  that  the  first  is  considering  himself  when  he 
speaks  so  finely,  perhaps  not  without  some  coquettish  self-compla- 
cency; and  that  the  second,  in  the  repetitions  and  the  sentences 
which  are  never  finished,  is  concerning  himself  solely  with  him.  The 
pupil  feels  that  not  want  of  facility  or  awkwardness,  but  the  holy 
zeal  of  the  teacher,  is  the  principal  thing,  and  that  this  latter  uses 
rhetoric  only  as  a  means. 

[The  teacher  should  expound  the  subject  in  such  a  way  as  to 
arouse  in  the  pupil  an  impulse  to  reproduce  it.  It  differs  in 
this  respect  from  a  work  of  art,  which  seeks  only  complete  pres- 
entation and  the  appearance  of  self-existence.  The  pupil  sees  in 
the  elegant  diction  of  one  teacher  a  studied  attempt  to  win  ad- 
miration for  himself,  while  in  the  inelegant  repetitions  and  un- 
finished sentences  of  another  teacher  he  feels  the  genuine  and 
exclusive  interest  manifested  in  his  own  progress.] 

§  116.  In  the  act  of  learning  there  appears  (a)  a  me- 
chanical element,  (5)  a  dynamic  element,  and  (<?)  one  in 
which  the  dynamic  again  mechanically  strengthens  it- 
self. 

[The  process  of  learning  involves  (a)  a  mechanical  element ; 
(b)  a  dynamic  element ;  (c)  a  dynamic  element  re-enforced  by 
the  mechanical  element  (i.  e.,  dynamic  attention  re-enforced  by 
mechanic  regularity,  punctuality,  and  system,  so  as  to  constitute 
industry).] 

§  117.  (a)  The  mechanical  element  consists  in  this, 
that  the  right  time  be  chosen  for  each  lesson,  an  exact 
arrangement  observed,  and  the  suitable  apparatus,  which 
is  necessary,  procured.  It  is  in  the  arrangement  that 
especially  consists  the  educational  power  of  the  lesson. 
The  spirit  of  scrupulousness,  of  accuracy,  of  neatness,  is 
developed  by  the  external  technique,  which,  however, 
should  be  subordinated  to  the  interests  of  the  subject 
studied.  The  teacher  must,  therefore,  insist  upon  it 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  115 

that  work  shall  cease  at  the  exact  time,  that  the  work  be 
well  done,  etc.,  for  on  these  little  things  many  greater 
things,  in  an  ethical  sense,  depend. 

To  choose  one's  time  for  any  work  is  often  difficult  because  of 
the  pressure  of  a  multitude  of  demands,  but  in  general  it  should  be 
determined  that  the  work  requiring  the  strongest  and  keenest  energy 
of  the  thinking  activity  and  of  memory  should  have  appropriated  to 
it  the  first  half  of  the  day. 

[The  mechanical  element  consists  in  (1)  right  time  (punctu- 
ality) ;  (2)  exact  arrangement  (regularity) ;  (3)  neatness  and  ac- 
curacy (system).  These  constitute  the  mechanical  morals  of  the 
school-room,  and  furnish  a  sort  of  training  in  self-control  and 
obedience  to  rule  that  forms  the  basis  of  all  more  spiritual  mo- 
rality. Attention  to  these  punctilios  often  seems  a  waste  of  ener- 
gy; but  it  tells  on  the  moral  character  as  nothing  else  does,  and 
makes  his  future  life  far  more  successful.  The  importance  of 
choosing  the  morning  hours  for  studies  requiring  hardest  think- 
ing or  greatest  strain  on  the  memory.] 

§  118.  (5)  The  dynamical  element  (i.  e.,  the  self-ac- 
tivity of  the  pupil)  consists  of  the  previously  developed 
power  of  attention,  without  which  all  the  exposition 
made  by  the  teacher  to  the  pupil  remains  entirely  for- 
eign to  him.  All  apparatus  is  dead,  all  arrangement  of 
no  avail,  all  teaching  fruitless,  if  the  pupil  does  not  by 
his  free  self-activity  receive  into  his  inner  self  what  one 
teaches  him,  and  thus  make  it  his  own  property. 

[The  dynamical  element  is  the  activity  of  the  pupil's  will 
directed  on  the  intellect ;  its  general  form  being  attention  (see 
§§  82,  83).  It  is  the  door  that  opens  the  mind  of  the  pupil — the 
mechanical  element  relates  to  externals,  the  dynamical  to  the 
internal,  the  self-activity  of  the  pupil.] 

§  119.  This  appropriation  must  not  limit  itself,  how- 
ever, to  the  first  acquisition  of  any  knowledge  or  skill, 
but  it  must  give  perfect  command  over  whatever  the 
pupil  has  learned ;  it  must  make  it  perfectly  familiar 

13 


THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

and  natural,  so  that  it  shall  appear  to  be  a  part  of  him- 
self. This  must  be  brought  about  by  means  of  repe- 
tition. This  will  mechanically  secure  that  which  the 
attention  first  grasped. 

[Besides  attention,  there  must  be  repetition — frequent  reviews 
— in  order  to  transmute  the  new  knowledge  and  skill  into  per- 
manent possession  ("into  faculty"  as  Herbert  Spencer  says). 
Repetition  corresponds  to  habit  in  will-training,  and  is  itself 
mechanical — hence  with  it  the  dynamical  is  re-enforced  by  the 
mechanical,  and  the  best  name  for  the  union  of  the  two  is 
industry.] 

§  120.  (c)  The  careful,  persistent,  living  activity  of 
the  pupil  in  these  acts  we  call  industry.  Its  negative 
opposite  is  laziness,  which  is  deserving  of  punishment 
inasmuch  as  it  proceeds  from  a  want  of  self-determina- 
tion. Man  is  by  nature  lazy.  But  mind,  which  is  only 
what  it  does,  must  resolve  upon  activity.  This  connec- 
tion of  industry  with  human  freedom,  with  the  very 
essence  of  mind,  makes  laziness  appear  blameworthy. 
The  really  civilized  man,  therefore,  no  longer  knows 
that  absolute  inaction  which  is  the  greatest  enjoyment 
to  the  barbarian,  and  he  fills  up  his  leisure  with  a  variety 
of  easier  and  lighter  work.  The  positive  opposite  of 
industry  is  the  unreasonable  activity  which  rushes  in 
breathless  chase  from  one  action  to  another,  from  this 
to  that,  over-tasking  the  person  with  the  immense  quan- 
tity of  his  work.  Such  an  activity,  seldom  directed 
with  proper  deliberation,  is  unworthy  of  a  man.  It  de- 
stroys the  serenity  and  repose  which  in  all  industry 
should  penetrate  and  inspire  the  deed.  Nothing  is  more 
repulsive  than  the  beggarly  pride  of  such  stupid  labo- 
riousness.  One  should  not  permit  for  a  moment  the 
pupil,  seeking  for  distinction,  to  begin  to  pride  himself 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  117 

on  an  extra  industry.  Education  must  accustom  him  to 
use  a  regular  diligence.  The  frame  of  mind  suitable  for 
work  often  does  not  exist  at  the  time  when  work  should 
begin,  but  more  frequently  it  makes  its  appearance  after 
we  have  begun.  The  subject  takes  its  own  time  to 
awaken  us.  Industry,  inspired  by  a  love  and  regard  for 
work,  has  in  its  quiet  uniformity  a  great  force,  without 
which  no  one  can  accomplish  anything  essential.  The 
world,  therefore,  holds  industry  worthy  of  honor ;  and 
to  the  Romans,  a  nation  of  the  most  enduring  persever- 
ance, we  owe  the  inspiring  words,  "  Incepto  tantum 
opus  est,  ccctera  res  expediet"  ;  and,  "Labor  improbus 
omnia  vincit"  Unflinching  labor  conquers  everything. 

"  Every  one  may  glory  in  his  industry ! "  This  is  a  true  word 
from  the  lips  of  a  truly  industrious  man,  who  was  also  one  of  the 
most  modest.  But  Lessing  did  not,  however,  mean  by  them  to  char- 
ter Pharisaical  pedantry.  The  necessity  sometimes  of  giving  one's 
self  to  an  excess  of  work  injurious  to  the  health  generally  arises 
from  the  fact  that  he  has  not  at  other  times  made  use  of  the  requi- 
site attention  and  the  necessary  industry,  and  then  attempts  suddenly 
and  as  by  a  forced  march  to  storm  his  way  to  his  goal.  The  result 
of  such  over-exertion  is  naturally  entire  prostration.  The  pupil  is, 
therefore,  to  be  accustomed  to  a  generally  uniform  industry,  which 
may  increase  from  time  to  time  without  his  thereby  overstraining 
himself.  What  is  really  gained  by  a  youth  who  has  hitherto  neg- 
lected time  and  opportunity,  and  who,  when  examination  presses, 
overworks  himself,  perhaps  standing  the  test  with  honor,  and  then 
must  rest  for  months  afterward  from  the  over-effort  ?  On  all  such 
occasions  attention  is  not  objective  and  dispassionate,  but  rather  be- 
comes, through  anxiety  to  pass  the  examination,  restless  and  cor- 
rupted by  egotism ;  and  the  usual  evil  result  of  such  compulsory  in- 
dustry is  the  ephemeral  character  of  the  knowledge  thus  gained. 
"  Lightly  come,  lightly  go,"  says  the  proverb. 

A  special  worth  is  always  attached  to  study  far  into  the  night. 
The  student's  "  midnight  oil "  always  claims  for  itself  a  certain  ven- 
eration. But  this  is  a  sad  vanity.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  injurious 


118  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

to  contradict  Nature  by  working  through  the  night,  which  she  has 
ordained  for  sleep ;  secondly,  the  question  is  not  as  to  the  number  of 
hours  spent  in  work  and  their  position  in  the  twenty-four,  but  as  to 
the  quality  of  the  work.  With  regard  to  the  value  of  my  work,  it  is 
of  no  moment  whatsoever  whether  I  have  done  it  in  the  morning  or 
in  the  evening,  or  how  long  I  have  labored,  and  it  is  of  no  conse- 
quence to  any  one  except  to  my  own  very  unimportant  self.  Finally, 
the  question  presents  itself  whether  these  gentlemen  who  boast  so 
much  of  their  midnight  work  do  not  sleep  in  the  daytime ! 

[Industry  defined  as  the  vital,  circumspect,  persistent  activity 
of  the  pupil.  Its  opposite  is  laziness,  which  deserves  corrective 
punishment.  Man  by  nature  is  lazy.  Since  mind  develops  into 
existence  only  through  self -activity,  industry  is  a  fundamental 
virtue  because  through  it  alone  can  spiritual  growth  take  place. 
Spiritual  growth  produces  freedom,  i.  e.,  emancipation  from  the 
limitations  of  time  and  space,  giving  man  possession  of  the  past 
and  present  within  himself  and  in  his  environment,  however 
distant.  The  savage  loves  intervals  of  absolute  inaction;  the 
civilized  man  hates  torpidity,  but  rests  himself  by  change  of 
work.  He  supplements  his  vocation  by  avocations.  Industry 
has  besides  its  negative  opposite  a  positive  opposite  which  is 
over-haste  and  over-exertion.] 

§  121.  But  industry  has  also  two  other  opposites — 
seeming-laziness  and  seeming-industry.  Seeming-lazi- 
ness is  the  neglecting  of  the  usual  activity  in  one  de- 
partment by  the  individual  because  he  is  so  much  more 
active  in  another.  The  mind  possessed  with  the  liveliest 
interest  in  one  subject  buries  itself  in  it,  and,  because  of 
this,  can  not  give  itself  up  to  another  which  before  had 
engrossed  the  attention.  Thus  it  appears  more  idle  than 
it  is,  or  rather  it  appears  to  be  idle  just  because  it  is 
more  industrious.  This  is  especially  the  case  in  passing 
from  one  subject  of  instruction  to  another.  The  pupil 
should  acquire  such  a  flexibility  in  his  intellectual  pow- 
ers that  the  rapid  relinquishment  of  one  subject  and  the 
taking  up  of  another  should  not  be  too  difficult.  Noth- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  119 

ing  is  more  natural  than  that  when  he  has  become  thor- 
oughly aroused  on  one  subject  he  should,  on  going  back 
to  the  subject  that  has  just  been  presented  to  him,  feel 
himself  still  attracted  to  the  former,  and  remain  indif- 
ferent to  the  following  lesson,  which  may  relate  to  an 
entirely  different  topic.  The  young  soul  is  brooding 
over  what  has  been  said,  and  is  really  exercising  an  in- 
tense activity,  though  it  appears  to  be  idle.  But  in 
seeming-industry  all  the  external  motions  of  activity, 
all  the  mechanism  of  work,  manifest  themselves  noisily, 
while  there  is  no  true  energy  of  attention  and  produc- 
tivity. One  busies  himself  with  all  the  apparatus  of 
work ;  he  heaps  up  instruments  and  books  around  him ; 
he  sketches  plans ;  he  spends  many  hours  staring  into 
vacancy,  biting  his  pen,  gazing  at  words,  drawings,  num- 
bers, etc.  Boys,  under  the  protection  of  so  great  a  scaf- 
folding for  work  erected  around  them,  often  carry  on 
their  own  amusements.  Men,  who  arrive  at  no  real 
concentration  of  their  force,  no  clear  defining  of  their 
vocation,  no  firm  decision  as  to  their  action,  dissipate 
their  power  in  what  is  too  often  a  great  activity  with 
absolutely  no  result.  They  are  busy,  very  busy ;  they 
have  hardly  time  to  do  this  thing  because  they  really 
wish  or  ought  to  do  that ;  but,  with  all  their  driving, 
their  energy  is  all  dissipated,  and  nothing  comes  from 
their  countless  labors. 

[Industry  is  opposed  to  (T)  seeming-laziness,  which  neglects 
some  things  to  attend  to  others  which  are  considered  more  impor- 
tant ;  all  specialization  is  of  this  character.  (3)  It  is  opposed 
likewise  to  seeming-industry,  which  goes  through  all  the  mo- 
tions of  industry  in  a  noisy  and  ostentatious  manner,  but  is  in- 
ternally idle.  Importance  of  disciplining  the  mind  to  turn 
completely  from  one  subject  to  another.] 


120  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER  XL 

INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION,     (c)  Instruction  (continued). 
(3)  The  Modality  of  the  Process  of  Teaching. 

§  122.  Now  that  we  have  learned  something  of  the 
relation  of  the  teacher  to  the  taught,  and  of  the  process 
of  learning  itself,  we  must  examine  the  mode  and  man- 
ner of  instruction.  This  may  have  (I)  the  character  of 
contingency :  the  way  in  which  our  immediate  existence 
in  the  world,  our  life,  teaches  us ;  or  it  may  be  given 
(#)  by  the  printed  page ;  or  (3)  it  may  take  the  shape 
of  formal  oral  instruction. 

[The  modality — that  is  to  say,  the  mode  and  manner  in  which 
the  instruction  is  given,  hence  its  form  or  method.  Instruction 
(1)  the  lessons  of  experience;  (2)  by  the  written  or  printed 
page ;  (3)  oral.] 

§  123.  (/)  For  the  most,  the  best,  and  the  mightiest 
things  that  we  know  we  are  indebted  to  life  itself. 
The  sum  of  perceptions  which  a  human  being  makes 
for  himself  up  to  the  fourth  or  fifth  year  of  his  life  is 
incalculable ;  and  after  this  time  w^e  continue  involun- 
tarily to  gain  by  immediate  contact  with  the  world 
countless  ideas.  But  we  understand,  by  the  phrase  "  the 
school  of  life,"  especially  the  ethical  knowledge  which 
we  gain  by  what  happens  in  our  own  lives. 

If  one  may  say,  Vitm  non  scholce  discendum  est,  one  can  also  say, 
Vita  docet.  Without  the  power  exercised  by  the  immediate  world 
our  intelligence  would  remain  abstract  and  lifeless. 

[Instruction  by  experience  begins  with  infancy  and  con- 
tinues through  life.  Especially  in  the  first  four  or  five  years 
the  sum  of  perceptions  from  this  source  is  enormous.  What 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUC 

ftae  child  learns  of  the  ways  of  life,  manners,  and  customs,  and 
moral  principles ;  proper  habits  of  eating  and  drinking,  care  of 
the  person  and  clothing,  forms  to  be  observed  toward  the  various 
ranks  in  the  family  and  society ;  glimpses  of  the  action  of  the 
law  of  the  state,  its  resistless  might,  its  punishment  of  crime ; 
numerous  observations  on  the  division  of  labor  and  its  sustenta- 
tion  by  trade  and  commerce ;  the  daily  and  weekly  spectacle  of 
the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  religion :  here  is  the  education  of 
life  through  the  four  institutions  of  civilization — family,  civil 
community,  state,  and  church.  The  education  that  one  gets 
by  adopting  a  trade  or  form  of  industry  and  earning  his  living, 
or  by  acting  as  a  citizen,  obeying  the  laws  and  assisting  at  the 
ballot-box  to  make  them,  or  in  the  army  risking  one's  life  to 
defend  them — each  of  these  is  a  peculiar  form  of  the  education 
that  life  offers,  and  its  results  can  not  be  obtained  through  any 
other  form— certainly  not  by  the  school— however  much  the 
school  may  re-enforce  them.] 

§  124.  (#)  What  we  learn  through  books  forms  a 
contrast  to  that  which  we  learn  through  living.  Life 
forces  upon  us  its  wisdom ;  the  book,  on  the  contrary,  is 
entirely  passive.  It  is  locked  up  in  itself ;  it  can  not  be 
altered ;  but  it  waits  by  us  till  we  wish  to  use  it.  We 
can  read  it  rapidly  or  slowly ;  we  can  simply  turn  over 
its  leaves — what  in  modern  times  one  calls  reading — 
we  can  read  it  from  beginning  to  end  or  from  end  to  be- 
ginning ;  we  can  stop,  begin  again,  skip  over  passages, 
or  cut  them  short,  as  we  like.  To  this  extent  the  book  is 
the  most  convenient  means  for  instruction.  If  we  are  in- 
debted to  life  for  our  perceptions,  we  must  chiefly  thank 
books  for  our  understanding  of  our  perceptions.  We 
call  book-instruction  "  dead "  when  it  lacks,  for  the 
exposition  which  it  gives,  a  foundation  in  illustration 
addressed  to  sense-perception,  or  when  we  do  not  add  to 
the  printed  description  the  perceptions  which  it  implies ; 
and  these  two  are  quite  different. 


122  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

[Instruction  through  books  is  in  some  respects  the  opposite 
of  instruction  through  living,  because  life  forces  its  wisdom  on 
us,  while  the  book  is  entirely  passive.  The  book  is  the  most  con- 
venient form  of  instruction.  We  must  have  gained  by  experi- 
ence from  real  life  a  sort  of  alphabet  or  key,  with  which  we  may 
spell  out  or  unlock  the  meaning  of  the  wisdom  stored  up  in 
books.  Unless  we  can  translate  what  the  book  says  into  elements 
of  our  own  experience,  it  is  dead  to  us.] 

§  125.  Books,  as  well  as  life,  teach  us  many  things 
which  we  did  not  previously  expect  to  learn  directly  from 
them.  From  the  romances  of  Walter  Scott,  for  example, 
we  learn,  first  of  all,  while  we  read  them  for  entertain- 
ment, the  English  language,  and  English  and  Scotch 
history  and  geography.  .  .  .  We  must  distinguish  from 
such  books  as  those  which  bring  to  us,  as  it  were  acci- 
dentally, a  knowledge  for  which  we  were  not  seeking, 
the  books  which  are  expressly  intended  to  instruct. 
These  "  text-books  "  must  (a)  in  their  consideration  of 
the  subject  give  us  the  principal  results  of  any  depart- 
ment of  knowledge,  and  denote  the  points  from  which 
the  next  advance  must  be  made,  because  every  science 
comes  to  results  which  are  themselves  again  new  prob- 
lems ;  (5)  in  the  consideration  of  the  particulars  they 
must  be  exhaustive,  i.  e.,  no  essential  elements  of  a  sci- 
ence must  be  omitted.  But  this  exhaustiveness  of  exe- 
cution has  different  meanings  according  to  the  stand- 
points of  those  for  whom  it  is  made.  How  far  we  shall 
pass  from  the  universality  of  the  principal  determina- 
tions into  the  multiplicity  of  the  particular,  into  the 
fullness  of  detail,  can  not  be  definitely  determined,  and 
must  vary,  according  to  the  aim  of  the  book,  whether 
for  the  apprentice,  the  journeyman,  or  the  master ;  (<?) 
the  expression  must  be  precise,  i.  e.,  the  maximum  of 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  123 

clearness  must  be  combined  with  the  maximum  of 
brevity. 

The  writing  of  a  text-book  is  on  this  account  one  of  the  most 
difficult  tasks,  and  it  can  be  successfully  accomplished  only  by  those 
who  are  masters  in  a  science  or  art,  and  who  combine  with  great 
culture  and  talent  great  experience  as  teachers.  Unfortunately, 
many  masters  of  science  hold  in  low  esteem,  the  writing  of  text- 
books because  they  think  that  they  are  called  upon  to  devote  them- 
selves entirely  to  the  spread  of  science,  and  because  the  writing  of 
compendiums  has  come  to  be  in  bad  repute  through  the  fact  that 
authors  and  publishers  have  made  out  of  text-books  a  profitable  busi- 
ness and  good  incomes.  In  all  sciences  and  arts  there  exists  a  quan- 
tity of  material  which  is  common  property,  which  is  disposed  of  now 
in  one  way,  now  in  another.  Hence  the  majority  of  compendiums 
can  be  distinguished  from  each  other  only  by  the  kind  of  paper, 
printing,  the  name  of  the  publisher  or  bookseller,  or  by  arbitrary 
changes  in  the  arrangement  and  execution.  The  want  of  principle 
with  which  this  work  is  sometimes  carried  on  is  incredible.  Many 
governments  have  on  this  account  fixed  prices  for  text-books,  and 
commissioners  to  select  them.  This  in  itself  is  right  and  proper,  but 
the  use  of  any  such  book  should  be  left  optional,  so  as  to  avoid  the 
one-sidedness  of  a  science  patronized  by  government  and  as  it  were 
licensed  or  introduced  by  law.  A  state  may  through  its  censorship 
oppose  poor  text-books,  and  recommend  good  ones  for  introduction ; 
but  it  may  not  .  .  .  establish  as  it  were  a  national  system  of  sci- 
ence or  of  art,  in  which  only  the  ideas,  laws,  and  forms  sanctioned  by 
it  shall  be  allowed.  The  Germans  are  fortunate,  in  consequence  of 
their  philosophical  criticism,  in  the  production  of  better  and  better 
text-books.  ...  So  much  the  more  unaccountable  is  it  that,  with 
such  excellent  books,  the  evil  of  such  characterless  books,  some  of 
them  defectively,  some  of  them  atrociously  written,  should  still  exist 
when  there  is  no  necessity  for  it.  The  good  old  fashion  of  paragraph- 
writing  has  become  obnoxious,  under  the  name  of  compendium-style, 
as  the  most  stiff  and  affected  style  of  writing. 

[The  recorded  wisdom  of  the  entire  human  race  is  preserved 
in  books,  and  hence  the  chief  province  of  the  school  is  to  endow 
the  pupil  with  the  power  to  use  books  profitably  through  life  so 
that  he  may  perpetually  draw  from  that  reservoir  of  wisdom, 
and  re-enforce  and  interpret  his  own  life.  A  "  text-book "  (a) 


124:          THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

gives  us  the  summed-up  results  in  a  department  of  knowledge, 
and  indicates  the  new  problems  that  occupy  present  attention ; 
(b)  it  must  include  all  phases,  so  as  to  give  a  rounded  view  of 
the  entire  subject  without  going  exhaustively  into  details ;  (c) 
it  must  use  clear  and  precise  language,  and  be  brief.  Govern- 
ment prescription  of  text-books.] 

§  126.  A  text-book  must  be  differently  written  ac- 
cording as  it  is  intended  as  a  book  for  private  study  or 
to  be  accompanied  by  oral  explanation.  If  the  former, 
it  must  go  more  into  details,  and  must  develop  more 
clearly  the  internal  relations ;  if  the  second,  it  should 
be  shorter,  and  proceed  from  axiomatic  and  clear  postu- 
lates to  hints  and  suggestions  that  must  have  an  epi- 
grammatic keenness  which  should  leave  something  to  be 
guessed.  Because  for  these  a  commentary  is  expected 
which  it  is  the  teacher's  duty  to  supply,  such  a  sketch  is 
usually  accompanied  by  the  fuller  text-book  which  was 
arranged  for  private  study.  [Illustrations  here  omitted.] 
[Text-books  (a)  for  private  study ;  (b)  for  use  in  school.] 

§  127.  (3)  The  text-book  which  presupposes  oral  ex- 
planation forms  the  transition  to  oral  instruction  itself. 
Since  speech  is  the  natural  and  original  form  in  which 
mind  manifests  itself,  no  book  can  rival  it.  The  living 
word  is  the  most  powerful  agent  of  instruction.  How- 
ever common  and  cheap  the  art  of  printing  may  have 
rendered  books  as  the  most  convenient  means  of  educa- 
tion— however  the  multiplication  of  facilities  for  inter- 
course and  the  increasing  rapidity  of  transportation  may 
have  facilitated  the  immediate  viewing  of  human  life  as 
the  most  impressive  educational  means — nevertheless 
the  living  word  still  asserts  its  value.  In  two  cases  es- 
pecially it  is  indispensable :  one  is  when  some  knowl- 
edge is  to  be  communicated  which  is  in  process  of  dis- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  125 

covery  and  as  yet  is  found  in  no  compendium ;  and  the 
other  when  a  living  language  is  to  be  taught,  for  in  this 
case  the  printed  page  is  entirely  inadequate.  One  can 
learn  from  books  to  understand  Spanish,  French,  Eng- 
lish, Danish,  etc.,  but  not  to  speak  them ;  to  do  this  he 
must  hear  them,  partly  that  his  ear  may  become  accus- 
tomed to  the  sounds,  partly  that  his  vocal  organs  may 
learn  correctly  to  imitate  them. 

[Oral  instruction.  The  living  word  is  the  most  powerful 
agent  of  instruction,  and  hence  can  produce  effects  where  other 
means  are  inadequate.  The  latest  discoveries,  the  commentary 
on  the  book,  as  well  as  the  pronunciation  of  foreign  languages 
— for  these  things  oral  instruction  is  indispensable.] 

§  128.  Life  surprises  and  overpowers  us  with  the 
knowledge  which  it  offers ;  the  book,  impassive,  waits 
our  convenience ;  the  teacher,  superior  to  us,  perfectly 
prepared  in  comparison  with  us,  consults  our  necessity, 
and  with  his  living  speech  uses  a  gentle  force  to  which 
we  can  yield  without  losing  our  freedom.  Listening  is 
easier  than  reading. 

Princes  seldom  read  themselves,  but  have  servants  who  read  to 
them. 

[Although  oral  instruction  is  the  most  powerful  means  of 
arousing  and  interesting  the  pupil,  yet  its  object  should  be  to 
emancipate  the  pupil  from  the  need  of  it,  and  (a)  make  him  in- 
terested in  knowledge  for  itself,  so  that  he  will  eagerly  follow  it 
through  the  (1)  text-book,  (2)  reference-book,  and  (3)  library ; 
(b)  seek  to  master  the  material  poured  in  upon  him  by  experi- 
ence of  life.] 

§  129.  Oral  instruction  may  (1)  give  the  subject, 
which  is  to  be  learned,  in  a  connected  statement,  or  (#) 
it  may  develop  it  by  means  of  question  and  answer. 
The  first  method  is  called  the  acroamatic,  the  second 
the  erotematic.  The  first  (the  acroamatic  or  lecture- 


126  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

system)  presupposes  the  theoretical  inequality  of  the 
teacher  and  the  taught.  Because  one  can  speak  while 
many  listen,  this  is  especially  adapted  to  the  instruction 
of  large  numbers.  The  second  method  (the  erotematic) 
is  either  that  of  the  catechism  or  the  dialogue.  The 
catechetical  is  connected  with  the  first  kind  of  oral  in- 
struction above  designated  because  it  makes  demand 
upon  the  memory  only  for  what  is  already  learned,  and 
is  very  often  and  very  absurdly  called  the  Socratic 
method.  In  the  dialogue,  we  try,  by  means  of  an  in- 
terchange of  thought,  to  investigate  in  company  with 
others  some  problem,  proceeding  according  to  the  neces. 
sary  forms  of  reason.  But  in  this  we  can  make  a  dis- 
tinction. One  speaker  may  be  superior  to  the  rest,  may 
hold  in  his  own  hand  the  thread  of  the  conversation, 
and  may  guide  *  it  himself ;  or,  those  who  mingle  in  it 
may  be  perfectly  equal  in  intellect  and  culture,  and  may 
each  take  part  in  the  development  with  equal  independ- 
ence. In  this  latter  case,  the  true  reciprocity  gives  us 
the  proper  dramatic  dialogue,  which  contains  in  itself 
all  forms  of  exposition,  and  may  pass  from  narration, 
description,  and  analysis,  through  satire  and  irony,  to 
genuine  humor.  When  it  does  this,  the  dialogue  is  the 
highest  product  of  the  intellect,  and  the  means  of  its 
purest  enjoyment. 

The  system  of  alternate  teaching,  in  which  the  pupil  takes  the 
teacher's  place  and  instructs  others,  can  be  used  only  where  the  sub- 
ject taught  admits  of  a  mechanical  treatment.  The  Hindoos  made 
use  of  it  in  very  ancient  times.  Bell  and  Lancaster  f  have  trans- 
planted it  for  the  teaching  of  poor  children  in  Europe  and  America. 
For  the  teaching  of  the  elementary  accomplishments— reading,  writ- 
ing, and  arithmetic — as  well  as  for  the  learning  by  heart  of  names, 

,  a  guide.  t  Monitorial  system. 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  127 

sentences,  etc.,  it  suffices,  but  not  for  any  scientific  culture.  Where 
we  have  large  numbers  to  instruct,  the  giving  of  the  fully  developed 
statement  (the  acroamatic  method)  is  necessary,  since  the  dialogue, 
though  it  may  be  elsewhere  suitable,  allows  only  a  few  to  take  part 
in  it.  And,  if  we  take  the  interrogative  (erotematic),  we  must,  if  we 
have  a  large  number  of  pupils,  make  use  of  the  catechetical  method 
only.  What  is  known  as  the  conversational  method  has  been  some- 
times suggested  for  our  university  instruction.  Diesterweg,  in  Ber- 
lin, insists  upon  it.  Here  and  there  the  attempt  has  been  made,  but 
without  any  result.  In  the  university,  the  lecture  of  the  teacher  as 
a  self -developing  whole  stands  in  contrast  with  the  scientific  discus- 
sion of  the  students  by  themselves,  in  which  they  as  equals  work 
over  with  perfect  freedom  what  they  have  heard.  Diesterweg  was 
wrong  in  considering  the  lecture-system  as  the  principal  cause  of  the 
lack  of  scientific  interest  which  he  thought  he  perceived  in  our  uni- 
versities. Kant,  Fichte,  Schelling,  Schleiermacher,  Wolf,  Niebuhr, 
etc.,  taught  by  lectures  and  awakened  the  liveliest  enthusiasm.  But 
Diesterweg  is  quite  right  in  saying  that  the  students  should  not  be 
degraded  into  writing-machines.  This  is  generally  conceded,  and 
a  pedantic  amount  of  copying  more  and  more  begins  to  be  con- 
sidered as  out  of  date  at  our  universities.  Nevertheless,  a  new  ped- 
antry, that  of  the  mere  lecture,  should  not  be  introduced ;  but  a  brief 
summary  of  the  lecture  may  be  dictated  and  answer  all  purposes,  or 
the  lecture  may  be  afterward  written  out  by  the  pupil  from  memory. 
The  great  efficacy  of  the  oral  exposition  does  not  so  much  consist  in 
the  fact  that  it  is  perfectly  free,  as  that  it  presents  to  immediate  view 
a  person  who  has  made  himself  the  bearer  of  a  science  or  an  art,  and 
has  found  what  constitutes  its  essence.  Its  power  springs,  above  all, 
from  the  solidity  of  the  lecture,  the  originality  of  its  content,  and 
the  elegance  of  its  form ;  whether  it  is  read  or  declaimed  is  a  matter 
of  little  moment.  Niebuhr,  e.  g.,  read,  word  for  word,  from  his 
manuscript,  and  what  a  teacher  was  he !  The  catechetical  way  of 
teaching  is  not  demanded  at  the  university  except  in  special  exami- 
nations ;  it  belongs  to  the  private  work  of  the  students,  who  must 
learn  to  be  industrious  of  their  own  free  impulse.  The  private  tutor 
can  best  conduct  reviews.  The  institution  which  presupposing  the 
lecture-system  combines  in  itself  original  production  with  criticism, 
and  the  connected  exposition  with  the  conversation,  is  the  profes- 
sional school.  It  pursues  a  well-defined  path,  and  confines  itself  to 
small  classes  of  scholars  whose  grades  of  culture  are  very  nearly  the 
14 


128  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

same.  Here,  therefore,  the  dialogue  can  be  developed  with  best  effect 
because  it  has  a  fixed  foundation,  and  each  one  can  take  part  in  the 
conversation ;  whereas,  from  the  variety  of  opinions  in  a  large  class, 
it  is  easily  perverted  into  an  aimless  talk,  and  the  majority,  having 
no  chance  to  speak,  become  weary. 

[Oral  instruction  of  two  kinds :  (1)  the  lecture,  acroamatic,  and 
(2)  erotematic,  or  the  form  of  catechism  and  dialogue.  (Acroa- 
matic, from  aKpodopai,  the  Greek  verb  for  to  hear  lectures,  was 
applied  to  Aristotle's  oral  lectures,  which  were  given  to  a  few 
pupils,  and  related  to  his  most  profound  and  abstruse  doctrines ; 
hence,  also  called  esoteric,  i.  e.,  inner,  doctrines  as  opposed  to 
the  exoteric,  or  outer,  doctrines.  Erotematic,  from  epwraw,  the 
Greek  verb  to  ask,  means  the  interrogative  method.)] 

§  130.  As  to  the  way  in  which  the  lecture  is  carried 
out,  it  may  be  arranged  for  those  who  have  undertaken 
the  entire  course  of  instruction  in  its  thorough,  system- 
atic form,  or  for  those  who  have  in  view  only  a  gen- 
eral, inexact  education,  without  intending  to  go  through 
the  complete  course.  The  ancients  called  the  first 
method  the  esoteric  and  the  second  the  exoteric,  as  we 
give  to  such  lectures  now,  respectively,  the  names  scho- 
lastic and  popular.  The  first  makes  use  of  terms  which 
have  become  technical  in  science  or  art,  and  proceeds  to 
combine  the  isolated  ideas  in  a  strict,  logical  manner ; 
the  second  endeavors  to  substitute  for  technicalities  gen- 
erally understood  designations,  and  conceals  the  exact- 
ness of  the  formal  conclusion  by  means  of  a  style  of 
narration.  It  is  possible  to  conceive  of  a  perfectly  me- 
thodical treatment  of  a  science  which  at  the  same  time 
shall  be  generally  comprehensible  if  it  strives  to  attain 
the  transparency  of  real  beauty.  A  scientific  work  of 
art  may  be  correctly  said  to  be  popular,  as,  e.  g.,  has 
happened  to  Herder's  "  Ideas  toward  a  Philosophy  of 
the  History  of  Mankind." 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  129 

Beauty  is  the  element  which  is  comprehended  by  all,  and  as  we 
declare  our  enmity  to  caricatures  in  picture-books  and  books  of  amuse- 
ment, and  to  the  mischievous  character  of  "  compendiums,"  so  we  must 
also  oppose  the  popular  publications  which  style  themselves  "  Science 
made  easy,"  etc.,  in  order  to  attract  more  purchasers  by  this  alluring 
title.  .  .  .  Kant  says :  "  In  the  effort  to  produce  in  our  knowledge  the 
completeness  of  scholarly  thoroughness,  and  at  the  same  time  a  pop- 
ular character,  without  in  the  effort  falling  into  the  errors  of  an  af- 
fected thoroughness  or  an  affected  popularity,  we  must,  first  of  all, 
look  out  for  the  scholarly  completeness  of  our  scientific  knowledge, 
the  methodical  form  of  thoroughness,  and  first  ask  how  we  can  make 
really  popular  the  knowledge  methodically  acquired  at  school,  i.  e., 
how  we  can  make  it  easy  and  generally  communicable,  and  yet  at  the 
same  time  not  supplant  thoroughness  by  popularity.  For  scholarly 
completeness  must  not  be  sacrificed  to  popularity  to  please  the  peo- 
ple, unless  science  is  to  become  a  plaything  or  a  trifling."  It  is  per- 
fectly plain  that  all  that  has  been  said  above  (§§  81-107)  on  the  psy- 
chological and  the  logical  methods  must  be  taken  into  account  in  the 
style  of  the  exposition  in  the  two  kinds  of  oral  method. 
[Technical  and  popular  lectures.] 

§  131.  It  has  been  already  remarked  (§  21),  in  speak- 
ing of  the  nature  of  education,  that  the  office  of  the  in- 
structor must  necessarily  vary  with  the  growing  culture. 
But  attention  must  here  again  be  called  to  the  fact  that 
education,  in  whatever  stage  of  culture,  must  conform 
to  the  law  which,  as  the  internal  logic  of  being,  deter- 
mines all  objective  developments  of  Nature  and  of  his- 
tory. The  family  gives  the  child  his  first  instruction ; 
between  this  and  the  school  comes  the  teaching  of  the 
tutor ;  the  school  stands  by  itself  over  against  the  fam- 
ily, and  presents  three  essentially  different  forms  accord- 
ing as  (1)  it  imparts  a  general  preparatory  instruction, 
or  (2)  special  teaching  for  different  callings,  or  (3)  a 
universal  scientific  cultivation.  Universality  and  par- 
ticularity are  united  in  individuality,  which  therefore 
contains  both  the  general  and  the  particular  freely  in 


130  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

itself.  All  citizens  of  a  state  should  have  (1)  a  general 
education  which  (a)  makes  them  familiar  with  reading, 
writing,  and  arithmetic,  these  being  the  means  of  all 
theoretical  culture ;  then  (5)  hands  over  to  them  a  pict- 
ure of  the  world  in  its  principal  phases,  so  that  they  as 
citizens  of  the  world  can  direct  their  course  on  our 
planet ;  and,  finally,  it  must  (c)  instruct  each  in  the  his- 
tory of  his  ovvn  state,  so  that  he  may  see  that  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  he  lives  are  the  result  of  special 
circumstances  in  the  past  in  their  connection  with  the 
history  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  so  may  learn  rightly 
to  estimate  the  interests  of  his  own  country  in  view  of 
their  necessary  relation  to  the  future.  This  work  the 
elementary  schools  have  to  perform.  From  this  through 
the  Realschule  [our  scientific  course  in  the  high-school] 
they  pass  into  the  school  where  some  particular  branch 
of  art  is  taught,  or  through  the  Gymnasium  [classical 
course  of  a  high-school  or  college]  to  the  university. 
Upon  the  general  basis  of  university  training  develop 
(2)  the  educational  institutions  that  aim  at  some  special 
education  which  leads  to  the  exercise  of  some  art. 
These  we  call  technological  schools,  where  one  may 
learn  farming,  mining,  a  craft,  a  trade,  navigation,  war, 
etc.  This  kind  of  education  may  be  specialized  indefi- 
nitely with  the  growth  of  culture,  because  any  one 
branch  is  capable  in  its  negative  aspect  of  such  division 
into  special  schools,  as,  e.  g.,  foundling  hospitals  and  or- 
phan asylums,  blind,  and  deaf  and  dumb,  institutions. 
The  abstract  universality  of  the  elementary  (common) 
school  and  the  one-sided  particularity  of  the  technologi- 
cal school,  however,  unite  in  a  sort  of  concrete  univer- 
sality as  a  ground  that  includes  both,  which,  without 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION*.  131 

aiming  directly  at  utility,  treat  science  and  art  on  all 
sides  as  their  own  end  and  aim  (and  constitutes  what 
is  called  the  scientific  spirit).  " Scientia  est  potentia" 
said  Lord  Bacon.  Practical  utility  results  indirectly 
through  the  progress  which  scientific  cognition  makes 
in  this  free  attitude  toward  the  world,  because  it  collects 
itself  and  avoids  dissipation  through  manifold  details  by 
seizing  the  idea  of  the  whole  and  getting  insight  into 
the  details  by  that  means.  This  organic  whole  of  in- 
struction is  properly  called  a  university.  By  it  the  edu- 
cational system  is  perfected. 

It  is  important  to  note  that  no  more  than  these  three  types  of 
schools  can  exist,  and  that  they  must  all  exist  in  a  perfectly  organ- 
ized civilization.  Their  titles  and  their  plans  and  arrangements  may 
be  very  different  among  different  nations  at  different  epochs,  but 
this  need  not  prevent  the  recognition  in  them  of  the  three  essential 
logical  phases — universal,  particular,  singular — on  which  they  are 
founded.  Still  less  should  the  imperfect  ways  in  which  they  mani- 
fest themselves  induce  us  to  condemn  them.  It  is  the  modern  tend- 
ency to  undervalue  the  university  as  an  institution  which  we  had 
inherited  from  the  middle  ages,  and  with  which  we  could  at  present 
dispense.  This  is  an  error.  The  university  presents  just  as  neces- 
sary a  form  of  instruction  as  the  elementary  school  or  the  techno- 
logical school.  Not  the  abolition  of  the  university,  but  a  reform 
which  shall  adapt  it  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  is  the  advance  which 
we  have  to  make.*  That  there  are  to  be  found,  outside  of  the 
university,  men  of  the  most  thorough  and  elegant  culture,  who  can 
give  the  most  excellent  instruction  in  a  science  or  an  art,  is  most  cer- 
tain. But  it  is  a  characteristic  of  the  university  in  its  teaching  to  do 
away  with  the  dependence  on  hap-hazard  and  mere  luck  which  is  un- 
avoidable in  case  of  private  voluntary  efforts.  The  university  offers 
to  the  student  an  organic,  self-conscious,  encyclopedic  representation 
of  all  the  sciences,  and  thus  it  creates  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  an 
intellectual  atmosphere  which  no  other  place  can  give.  Through 
this,  all  sciences  and  their  aims  are  seen  in  their  just  claims  for  con- 

*  Eoscnkranz  wrote  this  in  1847,  on  the  eve  of  revolutionary  scenes. 
11 


132    THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

sideration,  and  a  personal  stress  is  laid  upon  the  connection  of  one 
science  with  another.  The  imperfections  of  a  university,  which  arise 
through  the  rivalry  of  external  ambition,  through  the  necessity  of 
financial  success,  through  scholarships,  etc.,  are  finite  affairs  which 
it  has  in  common  with  all  human  institutions,  and  on  whose  account 
they  are  not  all  to  be  thrown  away.  Art-academies  are  for  art  what 
universities  are  for  science.  They  are  inferior  to  them  in  so  far  as 
they  appear  more  under  the  form  of  special  schools,  as  schools  of  ar- 
chitecture, of  painting,  and  conservatories  of  music ;  because  it  must 
be  granted  that  architecture,  sculpture,  painting,  music,  the  orches- 
tra, and  the  drama,  are,  like  the  sciences,  bound  together  in  a  uni- 
versitas  artium,  and  that  by  means  of  their  internal  reciprocal  action 
new  results  would  follow.  Academies  of  art,  as  isolated  schools  for 
masters,  which  have  no  teaching  properly  so  called,  are  not  indis- 
pensable, and  serve  only  as  a  prytaneum  for  meritorious  scholars, 
and  to  reward  industry  through  the  prizes  which  they  offer.  In 
their  idea  they  belong  with  the  university,  this  appearing  externally 
in  the  fact  that  most  of  their  members  are  university  professors.  But 
as  institutions  for  ostentation  by  which  the  ambition  of  the  learned 
was  flattered,  and  princes  surrounded  with  a  halo  of  science — as 
scientific  corporations  attached  to  courts,  they  have  lost  all  sig- 
nificance. They  flourished  with  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Egyptian 
caliphs,  and  with  absolute  monarchical  governments.  In  modern 
times  we  have  passed  beyond  the  abstract  jealousy  between  the  so- 
called  "  humanities "  and  the  natural  sciences,  because  we  compre- 
hend that  each  part  of  the  totality  can  be  realized  in  a  proper  sense 
only  by  its  development  as  relatively  independent.  Thus  the  Gym- 
nasium has  its  place  as  that  elementary  school  which,  besides  giving 
a  general  culture,  by  means  of  the  knowledge  of  the  language  and 
history  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  prepares  for  the  university; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Realscliule,  by  special  attention  to  nat- 
ural science  and  the  living  languages,  furnishes  the  required  prepa- 
ration to  the  technological  schools.  Nevertheless,  because  the  uni- 
versity embraces  the  science  of  Nature,  of  technology,  of  trade,  of 
finance,  and  of  statistics,  the  pupils  who  have  graduated  from  the 
so-called  high-schools  (hohern  Burgerschulen)  and  from  the  Real- 
sclmlen  will  also  be  brought  together  at  the  university  with  the 
graduates  of  the  Gymnasia. 

[The  order  of  educational  institutions ;  the  course  of  study ; 
the  kinds  of  schools.    (1)  Family ;  (2)  private  tutor  or  govern- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  133 

ess;  (3)  district  school;  (4)  high-school,  general  or  classical 
course  ;  (5)  university.  District-school  course  of  study,  (a)  the 
rudiments,  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  the  means  of  all  theo- 
retical culture ;  (b)  a  picture  of  the  world  in  geography,  and  se- 
lections of  poetry  and  prose  given  in  the  school  readers ;  (c)  his- 
tory of  one's  own  state,  and  its  relation  to  the  history  of  the 
world.  The  necessity  of  three  institutions  to  complete  the  whole 
course  of  study — district  or  elementary  school,  high  or  second- 
ary school,  the  university.  Art  academies.  The  jealousy  between 
the  "  humanities  "  (classical  studies)  and  the  natural  sciences.] 

§  132.  The  organization  of  the  school  will  be  deter- 
mined in  its  details  by  its  peculiar  aim.  But  in  general 
every  school,  no  matter  what  it  teaches,  ought  to  have 
some  system  of  rules  and  regulations  by  which  the  rela- 
tion of  the  pupils  to  the  institution,  to  each  other,  to  the 
teacher,  and  that  of  one  teacher  to  another,  as  well  as  to 
the  supervisory  authority,  the  programme  of  lessons,  the 
apparatus,  the  changes  of  work  and  recreation,  shall  be 
clearly  set  forth.  The  course  of  study  must  be  arranged 
so  as  to  avoid  two  extremes :  on  the  one  hand,  it  has  to 
keep  in  view  the  special  aim  of  the  school,  and  according 
to  this  it  tends  to  contract  itself.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  must  consider  the  relative  dependence  of  one  spe- 
cialty upon  other  specialties  and  upon  general  culture. 
It  must  leave  the  transition  free,  and  in  this  it  tends  to 
expand  itself.  Experience  alone  is  competent  so  to 
assign  the  limits  that  the  special  task  of  the  school  shall 
neither  be  sacrificed  nor  deprived  of  the  means  of  per- 
formance which  it  (since  it  is  also  always  only  a  part  of 
the  whole  culture)  receives  by  means  of  its  reciprocal 
action  with  other  departments.  The  programme  must 
assign  the  exact  amount  of  time  which  can  be  appro- 
priated to  each  study.  It  must  prescribe  the  order  in 
which  they  shall  follow  each  other ;  it  must,  as  far  as 


134  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

possible,  unite  kindred  subjects,  so  as  to  avoid  the  use- 
less repetition  which  dulls  the  charm  of  study ;  it  must, 
in  determining  the  order,  bear  in  mind  at  the  same  time 
the  necessity  imposed  by  the  subject  itself  and  the  psy- 
chological progression  of  intelligence  from  perception, 
through  conception,  to  the  thinking  activity  which 
grasps  all.  It  must  be  periodically  submitted  to  revis- 
ion, so  that  all  matter  which  has,  through  the  changed 
state  of  general  culture,  become  out  of  date,  may  be  re- 
jected, and  that  which  has  proved  itself  indispensable 
may  be  appropriated,  so  that  it  may  be  kept  up  to  the 
requirements  of  the  times.  And,  finally,  the  school 
must,  by  examinations  and  reports,  aid  the  pupil  in  the 
acquirement  of  a  knowledge  of  his  real  standing.  The 
examination  lets  him  know  what  he  has  really  learned, 
and  what  he  is  able  to  do :  the  report  shows  him  a  his- 
tory of  his  culture,  exhibits  to  him  in  what  he  has  made 
improvement  and  in  what  he  has  fallen  behind,  what 
defects  he  has  shown,  what  talents  he  has  displayed, 
what  errors  committed,  and  in  what  relation  stands  his 
theoretical  development  to  his  ethical  status. 

The  struggle  between  the  Gymnasia  and  the  industrial  interests 
of  the  community  is  a  very  interesting  phase  of  educational  history. 
They  were  asked  to  widen  their  course  so  as  to  embrace  mathe- 
matics, physics,  natural  history,  geography,  and  the  modern  lan- 
guages. At  first  they  stoutly  resisted;  then  they  made  some 
concessions;  finally,  the  further  they  went  the  more  they  found 
themselves  in  contradiction  with  their  true  work,  and  so  they  pro- 
duced, as  an  independent  correlate,  the  Realschule.  After  this  was 
founded,  the  Gymnasium  returned  to  its  old  plan,  and  is  now  again 
able  to  place  in  the  foreground  the  pursuit  of  classical  literature  and 
history.  It  was  thus  set  free  from  demands  made  upon  it  which 
were  entirely  foreign  to  its  nature. — The  examination  is,  on  its  peda- 
gogic side,  so  adapted  to  the  pupil  as  to  make  him  conscious  of  his 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  135 

own  condition.  As  to  its  external  side,  it  determines  whether  the 
pupil  shall  pass  from  one  class  to  another  or  from  one  school  to  an- 
other, or  it  decides  whether  the  school  as  a  whole  shall  display  its 
results  to  the  public — an  exhibition  which  ought  to  have  no  trace  of 
ostentation,  but  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  often  tinctured  with 
pedagogical  charlatanism. 

[The  rules  and  regulations  of  the  school.  The  course  of  study, 
limited  by  the  aim  of  the  school,  but,  on  account  of  the  depend- 
ence of  one  specialty  upon  all  the  rest,  must  include  some  gen- 
eral outline  of  the  whole  that  will  indicate  the  position  and  scope 
of  the  specialty.  The  programme  defines  the  amount  of  time 
given  to  each  study,  and  the  order  of  their  sequence.  It  must 
conform  to  the  laws  of  logical  arrangement  of  topic,  and  of  psy- 
chological development  of  the  pupil.  Examinations  and  reports 
aid  the  pupil  by  showing  him  where  his  work  is  successful  and 
where  defective.] 

§  133.  The  direction  of  the  school  on  the  side  of 
science  must  be  held  by  the  school  itself,  for  the  pro- 
cess of  the  intellect  in  acquiring  science,  the  progress  of 
the  method,  the  peculiarities  of  the  subject-matter  and 
the  order  of  its  development,  have  their  own  laws,  to 
which  instruction  must  submit  itself  if  it  would  attain 
its  end.  The  school  is,  however,  only  one  part  of  the 
whole  of  culture.  In  itself  it  divides  into  numerous  de- 
partments, together  constituting  a  great  organism  which 
in  manifold  ways  comes  into  contact  with  the  other 
organisms  of  the  state.  So  long  as  teaching  is  of  a 
private  character,  so  long  as  it  is  the  reciprocal  relation 
of  one  individual  to  another,  or  so  long  as  it  is  shut  up 
within  the  circle  of  the  family  and  belongs  to  it  alone, 
so  long  it  has  no  objective  character.  It  receives  this 
first  when  it  grows  to  a  school.  Historically  speaking, 
the  school  first  appears  as  an  auxiliary  of  the  church ; 
but  this  first  form,  in  time,  disappears.  Religion  is  the 
absolute  relation  of  man  to  God  which  subsumes  all 


136  THE   SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

other  relations.  In  so  far  as  religion  exists  in  the 
form  of  a  church,  those  who  are  members  of  the  same 
church  may  have  common  instruction  given  them  on 
the  nature  of  religion.  Instruction  on  the  subject  is 
proper,  and  it  is  even  enjoined  upon  them  as  a  law — as 
a  duty.  But  beyond  the  limits  of  their  own  society 
they  may  not  extend  their  sway.  The  church  may  ex- 
ert, itself  to  make  a  religious  spirit  felt  in  the  school 
and  to  make  it  penetrate  all  the  teaching ;  but  it  may 
not  presume,  because  it  has  for  its  subject  the  absolute 
interest  of  men,  the  interest  which  is  superior  to  all 
others,  to  determine  also  the  other  objects  of  education 
or  the  method  of  treating  them.  The  technical  acqui- 
sitions of  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  drawing  and 
music,  the  natural  sciences,  mathematics,  logic,  anthro- 
pology and  psychology,  the  practical  sciences  of  finance 
and  the  municipal  regulations,  have  no  direct  relation 
to  religion.  If  we  attempt  to  establish  one,  there  in- 
evitably appears  in  them  a  morbid  state  which  destroys 
them ;  not  only  so,  but  piety  itself  disappears,  for  these 
accomplishments  and  branches  of  knowledge  are  not  in- 
cluded in  its  province. 

Such  treatment  of  art  and  science  may  be  well-meant,  but  it  is 
always  an  error.    It  may  even  make  a  ludicrous  impression,  which 
is  a  very  dangerous  thing  for  the  authority  of  religion.    If  a  church 
has  founded  a  system  of  schools,  it  must  see  to  it  that  all  which  is 
there  taught  except  the  religious  instruction,  i.  e.,  all  of  science  and 
art,  shall  have  no  direct  connection  with  it  as  a  religious  institution. 
[The  management  of  the  school,  as  regards  its  course  of  study, 
the  methods  used,  and  the  interpretation  given  to  knowledge, 
must  be  vested  in  the  faculty  of  the  school.    But,  as  the  school 
is  only  a  part  of  the  entire  system  of  education,  it  receives  di- 
rection from  all  other  institutions  of  society.    The  school  had 
its  origin  in  the  church.] 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  137 

§  134.  The  church,  as  the  external  manifestation  of 
religion,  is  concerned  with  the  absolute  relation  of  man 
to  God,  which,  however,  is  special  in  itself  as  opposed 
to  man's  other  relations;  the  state,  on  the  contrary, 
seizes  the  life  of  a  nation  according  to  its  explicit 
totality.  The  state  should  conduct  the  education  of  all 
its  citizens.  To  it,  then,  the  church  must  appear  only 
as  a  school,  for  the  church  instructs  its  own  people  con- 
cerning the  nature  of  religion,  partly  by  teaching  proper 
(that  of  the  catechism),  partly  in  an  edifying  way,  by 
preaching.  From  this  point  of  view,  the  state  can  look 
upon  the  church  only  as  standing  side  by  side  in  the 
same  rank  with  those  schools  which  prepare  for  a 
special  vocation.  The  church  appears  to  the  state  as 
that  school  which  assumes  the  task  of  educating  the  re- 
ligious faculty.  Just  as  little  as  the  church  should  the 
state  attempt  to  exercise  any  influence  over  the  essential 
matters  of  science  and  art.  In  this  they  are  exactly 
alike,  and  must  acknowledge  the  necessity  which  both 
science  and  art  contain  within  themselves  and  by  which 
they  develop  their  contents.  The  laws  of  logic,  mathe- 
matics, astronomy,  morals,  aesthetics,  physiology,  etc., 
are  entirely  independent  of  the  state.  It  can  decree 
neither  discoveries  nor  inventions.  The  state  occupies 
the  same  ground  as  science,  both  presupposing  the  free- 
dom of  self-consciousness.  It  is  true  that  the  church 
teaches  man,  but  it  demands  from  him  at  the  same  time 
belief  in  the  truth  of  its  dogmas.  It  rests,  as  the  actual 
church,  on  presupposed  authority,  and  sinks  finally  all 
contradictions  which  arise  in  experience  in  the  absolute 
mystery  of  the  existence  of  God.  The  state,  on  the 
contrary,  elaborates  its  idea  into  the  form  of  laws,  i.  e., 


138  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

into  general  determinations,  of  whose  necessity  it  con- 
vinces itself.  It  seeks  to  give  to  these  laws  the  clearest 
possible  form,  so  that  every  one  may  understand  them. 
It  concedes  validity  only  to  that  which  can  be  proved, 
and  sentences  the  individual  according  to  the  external 
side  of  the  deed  ("  overt  act "),  not,  as  the  church  does,  on 
its  internal  side — that  of  disposition  (the  state  of  the 
heart).  Finally,  it  demands  in  him  consciousness  of 
his  deed,  because  it  makes  each  one  responsible  for  his 
own  deed.  It  has,  therefore,  the  same  principle  as 
science,  for  the  proof  of  necessity  and  the  unity  of 
consciousness  with  its  object  constitute  the  essence  of 
science.  Since  the  state  includes  the  school  as  one  of 
its  educational  instrumentalities,  it  is  from  its  very- 
nature  called  upon  to  guide  its  regulation  in  accordance 
with  the  principles  that  govern  the  unfolding  of  con- 
sciousness. 

The  church  calls  this  "  profanation."  One  might  say  that  the 
church,  in  the  absolute  mystery  which  is  the  object  of  its  faith,  al- 
ways represents  the  absolute  problem  for  science,  while  the  state,  as 
to  its  form,  coincides  with  science.  Whenever  the  state  abandons 
strictness  of  proof — when  it  begins  to  measure  the  individual  citizen 
by  his  disposition  and  not  by  his  deed,  and,  in  place  of  the  clear  in- 
sight of  the  rational  self-consciousness,  sets  up  the  psychological 
compulsion  of  a  hollow  mechanical  authority,  it  destroys  itself. 

["  The  state  seizes  the  life  of  a  people  in  its  explicit  totality," 
i.  e.,  all  human  relations,  and  hence  must  conduct  the  education 
of  its  citizens.  To  the  state  the  church  is  not  the  institution, 
but  one  of  several  co-ordinate  institutions.  The  state  should 
not  dictate  in  matters  of  science  and  art,  nor  in  matters  of  con- 
science. The  state  and  science  are  alike  in  presupposing  the  free- 
dom of  self -consciousness ;  the  state  in  making  the  individual 
responsible  for  his  deed  requires  consciousness  and  freedom  as 
conditions  of  conviction  in  case  of  crime ;  science  presupposes 
freedom  of  thought,  freedom  from  authority,  and  clear  insight 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  139 

into  the  necessity  of  the  demonstration,  i.  e.,  clear  consciousness. 
The  church,  however,  does  not  relinquish  the  demand  for  au- 
thority.] 

§  135.  Neither  the  church  nor  the  state  should  at- 
tempt to  control  the  school  in  its  internal  management. 
Still  less  can  the  school  constitute  itself  into  a  state 
within  the  state ;  for,  while  it  is  only  one  of  the  tem- 
porary means  which  are  necessary  for  developing  citi- 
zens, the  state  and  the  church  lay  claim  to  the  whole 
man  his  whole  life  long.  The  independence  of  the 
school  can  then  only  consist  in  this,  that  a  directory  is 
created  within  the  state  which  takes  the  schools  under 
its  control,  and  which  as  a  school  board  endeavors  to 
provide  for  the  needs  of  the  school,  while  externally 
it  adjusts  them  to  the  church  and  state  with  the  other 
ethical  powers.  The  emancipation  of  the  school  can 
never  reasonably  mean  its  abstract  isolation,  or  the  ab- 
sorption of  the  ecclesiastical  and  political  life  into  the 
school ;  it  can  signify  only  the  free  reciprocal  action  of 
the  school  with  state  and  church.  It  must  never  be  for- 
gotten that  what  makes  the  school  a  school  is  not  the 
total  process  of  education,  for  this  falls  also  within  the 
family,  the  state,  and  the  church ;  but  that  the  proper 
work  of  the  school  is  the  process  of  instruction,  by  which 
the  pupils  shall  gain  knowledge,  and  the  acquirement  of 
accomplishments  by  practice. 

The  confusion  of  the  idea  of  instruction  with  that  of  education 
in  general  is  a  common  defect  in  superficial  treatises  on  these  themes. 
The  radicals,  among  those  who  are  in  favor  of  so-called  "  emancipa- 
tion," often  erroneously  appeal  to  "  free  Greece,"  which  generally  for 
this  fond  ignorance  is  made  to  stand  as  authority  for  a  thousand 
things  of  which  it  never  dreamed.  In  this  fictitious  Hellas  of  "  free 
beautiful  humanity,"  they  say  the  limits  against  which  we  strive  to- 
day did  not  exist.  The  biographies  of  Anaxagoras,  Protagoras,  Di- 
15 


140  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS   OF  EDUCATION. 

agoras,  Socrates,  Aristotle,  Theophrastus,  and  of  others,  who  were 
condemned  on  account  of  their  "  impiety  "  (d<re/3em),  tell  quite  another 
story. 

[Limitations  of  church  and  state  in  their  control  over  the 
school — school  independent  in  the  control  of  its  internal  man- 
agement. "  Emancipation  of  the  school,"  in  1848,  a  great  politi- 
cal watchword.  Education  (ErzieJiung)  distinguished  from  in- 
struction ( Unterricht).] 

§  136.  The  inspection  of  the  school  may  be  carried 
out  in  different  ways,  but  it  must  be  required  that  its 
special  institutions  shall  be  included  and  cared  for  as  an 
organized  and  interrelated  whole,  framed  in  accordance 
with  the  idea  of  the  state,  and  that  one  division  of  the 
ministry  shall  occupy  itself  exclusively  with  it.  The 
division  of  labor  will  specially  affect  the  schools  for 
teaching  particular  vocations.  The  prescription  of  the 
subjects  to  be  studied  in  each  school  as  appropriate  to  it, 
of  the  course  of  study,  and  of  the  object  thereof,  prop- 
erly falls  to  this  department  of  government  (the  school 
board),  is  its  immediate  work,  and  its  theory  must  be 
changed  according  to  the  progress  and  needs  of  the 
time.  .  .  .  Sketches  of  plans  for  school  systems,  how- 
ever correct  they  may  be,  depend  upon  the  actual  sum 
of  culture  of  a  people  and  a  time,  and  must  therefore 
continually  modify  their  fundamental  ideal.  The  same 
is  true  of  the  methods  of  instruction  in  the  special  arts 
and  sciences.  Niemeyer,  Schwarz,  Herbart,  in  their 
sketches  of  pedagogics,  Beneke  in  his  "  Theory  of  Edu- 
cation," and  others,  have  set  forth  in  detail  the  method 
of  teaching  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  languages, 
natural  science,  geography,  history,  etc.  Such  directions 
are,  however,  ephemeral  in  value,  and  only  relatively 
useful,  and  must,  in  order  to  be  truly  practical,  be  of teo 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL. 

revised  in  accordance  with  universal  educational  princi- 
ples, and  with  the  progress  of  science  and  art.  [Notes 
on  questions  of  school  supervision  in  Prussia,  in  1848, 
here  omitted.] 

[School  inspection.  Inspection  ought  to  extend  over  the 
whole,  so  that  it  may  treat  each  part  in  its  organic  relation  to 
the  rest.  Programmes  of  studies,  methods  of  teaching  special 
branches,  are  of  ephemeral  value  and  need  frequent  revision.] 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PRAGMATICS    (EDUCATION    OF   THE   WILL). 

§  137.  BOTH  physical  and  intellectual  education  are 
in  the  highest  degree  practical.  The  first  reduces  the 
merely  natural  (i.  e.,  the  body)  to  a  tool  which  mind 
shall  use  for  its  own  ends ;  the  second  guides  the  intelli- 
gence, by  ways  conformable  to  its  nature,  to  the  neces- 
sary method  of  the  art  of  teaching  and  learning,  which 
finally  branches  out  in  the  nation  into  a  system  of  mu- 
tually dependent  school  organizations.  But  in  a  nar- 
rower sense  we  mean  by  practical  education  the  method- 
ical development  of  the  will.  This  phrase  more  clearly 
expresses  the  topic  to  be  considered  in  this  division 
than  another  sometimes  used  in  the  science  of  education 
(Bestrebiingsvermogen^  conatiye  power).  The  will  is 
already  the  subject  of  a  science  of  its  own,  i.  e.,  of 
ethics ;  and  if  the  science  of  education  would  proceed 
in  anywise  scientifically,  it  must  recognize  and  presup- 
pose the  idea  and  the  existence  of  this  science.  It  should 


14:2  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

not  restate  in  full  the  doctrines  of  freedom,  of  duty,  of 
virtue,  and  of  conscience,  although  we  have  often  seen 
this  done  in  works  on  education.  Education  has  to  deal 
with  the  ideas  of  freedom  and  morality  only  so  far  as  to 
fix  the  technique  of  their  process,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  confess  itself  weakest  just  here,  where  -  nothing  is  of 
any  worth  without  pure  self-determination. 

[The  special  elements  of  education  are :  A.  Physical  Education ; 
B.  Intellectual  Education ;  C.  Pragmatics,  or  Education  of  the 
Will.  "Practical"  refers  to  the  will-power.  The  complete 
science  of  the  will  is  called  Ethics.  Education  borrows  the 
conclusions  of  that  science  and  restates  them  only  in  outline.] 

§  138.  The  pupil  must  (1)  become  civilized ;  i.  e.,  he 
must  learn  to  govern,  as  a  thing  external  to  him,  his 
natural  egotism,  and  to  make  the  forms  which  civilized 
society  has  adopted  his  own.  (2)  He  must 'become  im- 
bued with  morality ;  i.  e.,  he  must  learn  to  determine 
his  actions,  not  only  with  reference  to  what  is  agreeable 
and  useful,  but  according  to  the  principle  of  the  good ; 
he  must  become  internally  free,  form  a  character,  and 
must  habitually  look  upon  the  necessity  of  freedom  as 
the  absolute  measure  of  his  actions.  (3)  He  must  be- 
come religious ;  i.  e.,  he  must  discern  that  the  world, 
with  all  its  changes,  himself  included,  is  only  phenom- 
enal ;  the  affirmative  side  of  this  insight  into  the  empti- 
ness of  the  finite  and  transitory  (which  man  would  so 
willingly  make  everlasting)  is  the  consciousness  of  the 
Absolute  existing  in  and  for  itself.  The  Absolute,  with- 
out change  and  entirely  unaffected  by  the  process  of 
manifestation,  constitutes  no  factor  of  its  changes,  but, 
while  it  actually  makes  them  its  object,  permeates  them 
all,  and  freely  distinguishes  itself  from  them.  In  so  far 
as  man  relates  himself  to  God,  he  cancels  all  finitude 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL.  143 

and  transitoriness,  and  by  this  feeling  frees  himself  from 
the  externality  of  phenomena.  Virtue  on  the  side  of 
civilization  is  politeness;  on  that  of  morality,  consci- 
entiousness ;  and  on  that  of  religion,  humility. 

[The  youth  must  (1)  become  civilized;  (2)  acquire  a  moral 
will ;  (3)  become  religious.  Civilized  man  subordinates  his  ani- 
mal selfishness  and  wears  the  forms  of  society  as  though  they 
were  his  nature.  Morality  subjects  all  motives  to  one  supreme 
motive,  the  principle  of  the  good.  Religion  sees  the  world  and 
all  its  phenomena,  including  the  "  deeds  done  in  the  body,"  to  be 
mere  transient  appearances,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  in  God  it 
contemplates  absolute  existence  above  the  realm  of  change  and 
decay. 

Three  stages  of  virtue:  (a)  politeness  the  virtue  of  civiliza- 
tion ;  (b)  conscientiousness  the  virtue  of  morality ;  (c)  humility 
the  virtue  of  religion.  Humility  is  the  virtue  named  in  the 
Beatitudes  as  possessed  by  "  the  poor  in  spirit,"  the  "  poverty " 
wedded  by  St.  Francis  (Dante's  Paradiso,  canto  xi,  58).l 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

EDUCATIOK  OF  THE  WILL  (continued), 
(a)  Social  Culture. 

§  139.  THE  social  development  of  man  constitutes 
the  beginning  of  practical  education.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  suppose  a  special  social  instinct.  The  inclination 
of  man  to  the  society  of  men  does  not  arise  from  the 
identity  of  their  nature  alone,  but  is  also  in  each  special 
instance  affected  by  particular  relations.  The  natural 
starting-point  of  social  culture  is  the  family.  But  this 
in  turn  educates  the  child  for  society,  and  by  means  of 


144  TEE   SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

society  the  individual  enters  into  relation  with  the  world 
at  large.  Thus  natural  sympathy  changes  to  polite  be- 
havior, and  the  latter  again  to  the  thrifty  and  circum- 
spect deportment,  whose  proper  ideal  nevertheless  is 
before  all  the  ethical  purity  which  combines  with  the 
wisdom  of  the  serpent  the  harmlessness  of  the  dove. 

[The  beginning  of  all  eduction  of  the  will  is  to  be  found  in 
social  manners  and  customs.  This  is  given  in  the  family,  where 
the  child  learns  the  manifold  forms  of  behavior  toward  others, 
his  equals,  inferiors,  and  superiors.] 

§  14.0.  (1)  The  family  is  the  natural  social  circle  to 
which  man  primarily  belongs.  In  it  all  the  immediate 
differences  which  exist  are  compensated  by  the  equally 
immediate  unity  of  the  relationship.  The  subordina- 
tion of  the  wife  to  the  husband,  of  the  children  to  their 
parents,  of  the  younger  children  to  their  elder  brothers 
and  sisters,  ceases  to  be  subordination,  through  the  in- 
timacy of  love.  The  child  learns  obedience  to  authority, 
while  it  satisfies  its  parents  and  finds  its  own  gratifica- 
tion in  their  approval.  All  the  relations  in  which  he 
finds  himself  within  the  family  are  penetrated  by  the 
warmth  of  implicit  confidence,  which  can  be  replaced 
for  the  child  by  nothing  else.  In  this  sacred  circle  the 
tenderest  emotions  of  the  heart  are  developed  by  the 
personal  interest  of  all  its  members  in  what  happens  to 
any  one  of  their  number,  and  thus  the  foundation  is 
laid  of  a  susceptibility  to  all  genuine  or  hearty  social 
intercourse. 

Nothing  more  unreasonable  or  inhuman  could  exist  than  those 
modern  theories  (of.  French  socialists)  which  would  destroy  the 
family  and  would  leave  the  children,  the  offspring  of  the  unbridled 
natural  instinct,  to  grow  up  in  public  nurseries.  This  appears  to  be 
very  humane  to  them ;  indeed,  these,  socialists  talk  of  nothing  but 


EDUCATION   OF  THE   WILL.  145 

the  interests  of  "  humanity  " — they  are  never  weary  of  uttering  their 
insipid  jests  on  the  institution  of  the  family,  as  if  it  were  the  prin- 
ciple of  all  narrow-mindedness.  Have  these  fanatics,  who  are  seek- 
ing after  an  abstraction  of  humanity,  ever  examined  our  foundling- 
hospitals,  orphan  asylums,  barracks,  and  prisons,  to  discover  in  some 
degree  to  what  an  atomic  barren  intelligence  a  human  being  de- 
velops who  has  never  formed  a  part  of  a  family  ?  The  family  is,  of 
course,  only  one  phase  in  the  grand  order  of  the  ethical  organization ; 
but  it  is  the  substantial  phase  from  which  man  passively  proceeds, 
but  into  which,  as  he  founds  a  family  of  his  own,  he  actively  returns. 
The  child  lives  in  the  family,  shares  the  common  joy  and  grief,  and 
feels  sympathy  with  all.  In  the  emotion  with  which  he  sees  his 
parents  approach  death  while  he  is  hastening  toward  the  full  enjoy- 
ment of  existence,  he  experiences  the  finer  feelings  which  are  so 
powerful  in  creating  in  him  a  deeper  and  more  tender  understand- 
ing of  everything  human.  .  .  . 

[The  family  is  the  natural  social  circle — its  association  does  not 
depend  on  free  choice,  but  on  the  natural  accident  of  birth.  All 
the  differences  of  rank,  all  subordination  and  inferiority,  are  at 
once  compensated  by  the  natural  intimacy  of  kinship  and  family 
love.  Each  one  feels  his  unity  of  substance  with  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  family,  and  hence  suffers  in  their  sorrow  and  rejoices 
in  their  happiness.  Hence,  obedience  to  the  authority  of  the 
parents  is  rendered  by  the  child  with  an  intense  feeling  of  grati- 
fication at  winning  their  approval.  This  development  of  living 
for  others  and  through  others  in  the  family  lays  the  foundation 
of  social  intercourse.] 

§  141.  (2)  The  family,  however,  educates  the  chil- 
dren not  for  itself  but  for  civil  society.  In  the  latter  a 
system  of  manners  and  customs  is  formed  which  fur- 
nishes a  social  formula  or  fixed  code  of  etiquette  to 
determine  the  behavior  of  the  individual  in  society. 
This  social  code  endeavors  to  subdue  the  natural  rough- 
ness of  man,  at  least  as  far  as  it  manifests  itself  exter. 
nally.  Because  he  is  a  spiritual  being,  man  is  not  to 
yield  himself  to  his  immediate  impulses ;  he  is  to  ex- 
hibit to  man  his  naturalness  as  under  the  control  of 


146     THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

spirit.  The  etiquette  of  propriety  on  the  one  hand 
facilitates  the  manifestation  of  individuality  by  means 
of  which  one  person  becomes  interesting  to  others,  inas- 
much as  it  encourages  free  expression  of  individual  dif- 
ferences, and,  on  the  other  hand,  since  its  forms  are 
alike  for  all,  it  makes  them  recognize  the  equality  of 
each  individual  with  all  others,  and  so  makes  their  inter- 
course easier. 

The  conventional  form  is  no  mere  constraint ;  but  essentially  a 
protection  not  only  for  the  freedom  of  the  individual,  but  much 
more  the  protection  of  the  individual  against  the  rude  impetuosity 
of  his  own  naturalness.  Savages  and  peasants  for  this  reason  are,  in 
their  relations  to  each  other,  by  no  means  as  unconstrained  as  one 
often  represents  them,  but  hold  closely  to  a  ceremonious  behavior. 
There  is  in  one  of  Immerman's  stories,  "The  Village  Justice,"  a 
very  excellent  picture  of  the  conventional  forms  with  which  the 
peasant  loves  to  surround  himself.  The  scene  in  which  the  towns- 
man, who  thinks  that  he  can  dispense  with  forms  among  the  peasants, 
is  very  entertainingly  taught  better,  is  exceedingly  valuable  in  an 
educational  point  of  view.  The  feeling  of  shame  which  man  has  in 
regard  to  his  mere  naturalness  is  often  extended  to  relations  where 
it  has  no  direct  significance,  when  this  sense  of  shame  is  appealed  to 
in  children  in  reference  to  things  which  are  really  perfectly  indiffer- 
ent externalities. 

[The  object  of  the  social  code  is  to  subdue  the  natural  rude- 
ness that  belongs  to  man  as  a  mere  animal,  and  thus  clothe  the 
brutal  with  a  garb  of  unselfish  forms.  The  essence  of  politeness 
consists  in  treating  others  as  if  they  were  perfectly  ideal  people. 
The  polite  person  utterly  ignores  all  rudeness  shown  him,  and 
treats  others  as  if  they  intended  the  same  politeness  toward  him. 
He  prefers  others  before  himself,  and  adopts  as  a  second  nature 
the  form  of  divine  charity  or  "  altruism,"  which  devotes  itself  to 
the  good  of  others.  Politeness  is  only  the  form  of  this  altruism ; 
morality  and  religion  are  the  substance  of  it.  Since  the  form  of 
politeness  is  the  same  for  all — the  same  for  the  king  as  for  the 
beggar — it  follows  that  politeness  is  the  ceremonial  form  by 
which  we  celebrate  the  equality  of  all  men  in  the  substance  of 


EDUCATION   OF  THE   WILL. 

their  humanity.  "  All  are  equal  before  God  " ;  and  also  before 
the  ideal  of  politeness.  This,  as  Rosenkranz  says,  makes  social 
intercourse  easier.] 

§  142.  Education  with  regard  to  social  culture  lias 
two  extremes  to  avoid:  the  youth  may,  in  his  effort  to 
prove  his  individuality,  become  vain  and  conceited,  and 
fall  into  a  sort  of  mania  for  attracting  the  attention  of 
others ;  or  he  may  become  slavishly  dependent  on  con- 
ventional forms,  a  kind  of  social  pedant.  This  state  of 
nullity  which  contents  itself  with  the  mechanical  polish 
of  social  formalism  is  ethically  more  dangerous  than  the 
tendency  to  a  marked  individuality,  for  it  betrays  empti- 
ness ;  while  the  effort  toward  a  peculiar  differentiation 
from  others,  and  the  desire  to  become  interesting  to 
others,  indicate  power. 

[Two  extremes  of  social  culture  to  be  avoided :  (1)  accentua- 
tion of  individuality  by  deviations  from  the  code  of  politeness  to 
such  a  degree  as  to  become  a  mania  for  attracting  attention; 
(2)  slavish  dependence  on  the  conventional  forms  to  such  an  ex- 
tent as  to  appear  constrained  and  pedantic.  The  latter  indicates 
weakness  of  individuality,  the  former  strength.] 

§  143.  When  we  have  a  harmony  of  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  individual  with  the  expression  of  the  recog- 
nition of  the  equality  of  others,  we  have  what  is  called 
proper  deportment  or  politeness,  which  combines  dig- 
nity and  grace,  self-respect  and  modesty.  We  call  it, 
when  fully  complete,  urbanity.  It  treats  the  conven- 
tional forms  with  irony,  since,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
yields  to  them,  it  allows  the  productivity  of  spirit  to 
shine  through  them  in  small  deviations  from  them,  as  if 
it  were  fully  able  to  make  others  in  their  place. 

True  politeness  shows  that  it  remains  master  of  forms.  It  is 
very  necessary  to  accustom  children  to  courtesy  and  to  bring  them 
up  in  the  etiquette  of  the  prevailing  social  custom ;  but  they  must 


14:8  THE   SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

be  prevented  from  falling  into  silly  formality  which  makes  the 
highest  perfection  of  polite  behavior  to  consist  in  a  blind  following 
of  the  dictates  of  the  last  fashion-journal,  and  in  the  exact  copying 
of  the  phraseology  and  directions  of  some  book  on  manners.  One 
can  best  teach  and  practice  politeness  when  he  does  not  merely  copy 
the  social  technique,  but  comprehends  its  original  idea.  .  .  . 

[Urbanity  the  name  for  perfect  politeness. — (Notice  that  ur- 
banity is  from  urbs,  the  Latin  for  city,  while  politeness  is  from 
polis,  the  Greek  for  city — as  if  social  culture  were  born  in  cities, 
where  the  constant  intercourse  of  people  renders  necessary  a 
code  of  manners.)  Urbanity  "  treats  the  conventional  forms  of 
politeness  with  irony,"  i.  e.,  it  lets  it  be  apparent  that  it  does  not 
practice  the  strict  forms  of  etiquette  mechanically,  but  merely 
submits  to  them  outwardly,  while  within  it  feels  a  much  more 
tender  and  hearty  respect  for  others  than  is  or  can  be  expressed 
by  those  stiff,  conventional  forms.  It  therefore  "  makes  small 
deviation  from  them"  in  the  direction  of  greater  familiarity 
and  friendliness,  showing  that  it  possesses  the  substance  of 
politeness  in  its  devotion  to  the  good  of  others,  and  that  it  can 
therefore  invent  new  forms  of  etiquette.  Within  the  family 
there  reigns  the  unconstrained  expression  of  devotion  to  others 
— in  polite  society,  the  conventional  forms  of  considerateness 
for  others'  welfare — in  its  perfect  form  of  urbanity,  a  sort  of 
shining  through  of  the  family  love.] 

§  144.  (3)  But  to  fully  initiate  the  youth  into  the 
institutions  of  civilization  one  must  not  only  call  out 
the  feelings  of  his  heart  in  the  bosom  of  the  family,  not 
only  give  to  him  the  formal  refinement  necessary  to  his 
intercourse  with  society ;  it  must  also  perform  the  pain- 
ful duty  of  making  him  acquainted  with  the  mysteries 
of  the  ways  of  the  world.  This  duty  is  painful,  because 
the  child  naturally  feels  an  unlimited  confidence  in  all 
men.  This  confidence  must  be  modified  and  restricted 
but  not  destroyed.  The  mystery  of  the  way  of  the 
world  is  the  practice  of  deception  which  originates  in 
selfishness.  "We  must  provide  against  it  by  a  proper 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL. 

degree  of  distrust.  We  must  teach  the  youth  that  he 
may  be  imposed  upon  by  cunning,  dissimulation,  and 
hypocrisy,  and  that  therefore  he  must  not  give  his  con- 
fidence lightly  and  credulously.  He  himself  must  learn 
how  he  can,  without  using  deceit,  gain  his  own  ends  in 
the  midst  of  the  throng  of  opposing  interests. 

Kant  in  his  pedagogics  calls  that  worldly-wise  behavior,  by  which 
the  individual  is  to  demean  himself  in  opposition  to  others,  impene- 
trability. By  its  means  man  learns  how  to  "  manage  men."  Egotism 
is  like  the  blast  of  a  simoom  in  its  withering  effects  on  the  moral 
character  when  it  is  practiced  as  Lord  Chesterfield  recommends  it  in 
his  letters  to  his  son.  .  .  .  The  sum  of  his  teachings  amounts  to  this, 
that  we  are  to  consider  every  man  to  be  an  egotist,  and  to  convert 
his  very  egotism  into  a  means  of  finding  out  his  weak  side,  i.  e.,  to 
flatter  him  by  exciting  his  vanity,  and  by  means  of  such  flattery  to 
ascertain  his  limits.  In  common  life,  the  expression  "  to  know  the 
world "  means  about  the  same  thing  as  having  been  deceived  and 
betrayed. 

[Social  culture  has  also  a  negative  duty — that  of  forewarning 
youth  against  the  selfishness  of  the  world  and  its  forms  of 
deceit  and  violence.  Cunning,  dissimulation,  and  hypocrisy, 
may  impose  on  the  youth.  He  must  be  on  his  guard.] 


CHAPTER  XIY. 

EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL  (continued). 
(5)  Moral  Culture. 

§  145.  THE  essential  element  of  social  culture  is 
found  in  moral  character.  "Without  this  latter,  every 
graceful  device  of  behavior  remains  worthless,  and  can 
never  attain  that  purity  of  humility  and  dignity  which 


150  THE   SPECIAL  ELEMENTS   OF  EDUCATION. 

are  possible  to  it  in  its  unity  with  morality.  For  the 
detailed  treatment  of  this  idea  the  science  of  education 
must  refer  to  ethics  itself,  and  can  here  give  the  part  of 
its  content  which  relates  to  education  only  in  the  form 
of  educational  maxims.  The  principal  categories  of 
ethics  in  the  domain  of  morality  are  the  ideas  of  duty, 
virtue,  and  conscience.  Education  must  lay  stress  on 
the  truth  that  nothing  in  the  world  has  any  absolute 
value  except  will  guided  by  the  right. 

[Morality  is  a  department  of  Ethics  in  the  system  here  fol- 
lowed. Ethics  includes  manners  and  customs,  forms  of  eti- 
quette, statute  laws,  forms  of  government,  the  organized  forms 
of  human  industry  and  the  like  as  well  as  morality,  which  is 
only  the  subjective  aspect  of  Ethics.  Ethics  relates,  therefore,  to 
the  whole  of  the  formal  part  of  life  that  fits  man  to  live  in  the 
institutions  of  civilization.  Morality  refers  to  the  individual 
conviction  of  duty — hence,  to  the  internal  ideal,  the  form  of  the 
perfect  man.  The  principal  categories  of  Morality  are  (1)  Duty ; 
(2)  Virtue ;  (3)  Conscience.  "  Nothing  in  the  world  has  an  abso- 
lute value  except  will  guided  by  the  right,"  Rosenkranz  says, 
"  except  the  pure  will."  In  his  philosophy  "  pure  will "  means 
the  will  as  self-related.  "When  I  guide  my  action  by  moral  law 
I  guide  my  will  by  my  will  instead  of  letting  external  circum- 
stances or  internal  impulses  guide  it.  The  will  acting  upon  the 
will  is  pure  will,  and  this  is  the  essence  of  morality.  Again, 
morality  is  the  form  of  will  or  that  general  form  of  volition 
which  will  not  contradict  itself  and  reduce  to  zero.  Immoral 
acts  injure  one's  self  and  society,  and,  if  persisted  in,  would  ulti- 
mately cripple  or  destroy  the  self  and  society,  and  thus  cancel  the 
will  itself.  Hence,  the  pure  will  is  the  form  in  which  the  will 
of  the  individual  re-enforces  the  will  of  society,  and  is  in  turn 
re-enforced  by  it.] 

§  146.  Thence  follows  (1)  the  maxim  relating  to  the 
idea  of  duty,  that  we  must  accustom  the  pupil  to  un- 
conditional obedience  to  it,  so  that  he  shall  perform  it 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  it  is  duty.  The  perform- 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   WILL.  151 

ance  of  a  duty  may  bring  with  it  externally  a  result 
agreeable  or  disagreeable,  useful  or  harmful;  but  the 
consideration  of  such  consequences  ought  never  to  de- 
termine us.  This  moral  demand,  though  it  may  appear 
to  be  excessive  severity,  is  the  absolute  foundation  of 
all  genuine  ethical  practice.  All  "  highest  happiness  " 
theories,  however  finely  spun  they  may  be,  when  taken 
as  a  guide  for  life,  lead  at  last  to  sophistry,  and  to  con- 
tradictions ruinous  to  life. 

[The  pupil  must  be  accustomed  to  unconditional  obedience 
to  duty.  Eudemonism,  or  the  doctrine  that  we  should  seek  the 
highest  happiness,  is  not  a  sufficient  theory,  because  it  implies 
that  the  individual  shall  weigh  the  consequences  of  his  deed. 
But  no  individual  can  weigh  the  consequences  of  his  puniest 
act.] 

§  147.  (2)  Yirtue  must  make  actual  what  duty  com- 
mands, or,  rather,  the  actualizing  of  duty  is  virtue.  And 
here  we  may  mention,  by  way  of  caption,  that  the  prin- 
cipal things  to  be  considered  under  virtue  are  (a)  the 
dialectic  of  particular  virtues,  (5)  moral  discipline,  and 
(<?)  character. 

[Virtue,  which  is  the  practice  of  actualizing  duty,  involves 

three  things :  (a)  the  dialectic  of  the  different  forms  of  virtue ; 

(b)  moral  discipline ;  (c)  character  as  the  result.] 

§  148.  (a)  From  the  dialectic  [i.  e.,  the  consideration 
of  the  interdependence  of  the  virtues  and  their  mutual 
support,  as  well  as  their  reciprocal  limitation]  of  particu- 
lar virtues  there  follows  the  educational  maxim  that  we 
must  practice  all  with  equal  faithfulness,  for  all  together 
constitute  an  ethical  system  complete  in  itself,  in  which 
no  one  virtue  is  indifferent  to  another. 

Morality  should  recognize  no  distinction  of  superiority  among 
the  different  virtues.   They  reciprocally  determine  each  other.   There 
16 


152  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

is  no  such  thing  as  one  virtue  which  shines  out  above  the  others,  nor 
is  there  any  special  gift  for  virtue.  The  pupil  must  be  taught  that 
there  are  no  great  and  no  small  among  the  virtues,  for  that  one  which 
may  at  first  sight  seem  small  is  inseparably  connected  with  that 
which  is  seemingly  the  greatest.  Many  virtues  are  attractive  by  rea- 
son of  their  external  consequences,  as,  e.  g.,  industry  because  of  suc- 
cess in  business,  worthy  conduct  because  of  the  respect  paid  to  it, 
charity  because  of  the  pleasure  attending  it ;  but  man  should  not 
practice  these  virtues  because  he  enjoys  them :  he  must  devote  the 
same  amount  of  self-sacrifice  and  of  assiduity  to  those  virtues  which 
(as  Christ  said)  are  to  be  performed  in  secret. 

It  is  especially  valuable,  in  an  educational  respect,  to  gain  an 
insight  into  the  transition,  of  which  each  virtue  is  empirically  capa- 
ble, into  a  negative  as  well  as  into  a  positive  extreme.  The  differ- 
ences between  the  extremes  and  the  golden  mean  are  differences  in 
quality,  although  they  arrive  at  this  difference  in  quality  by  means 
of  difference  in  quantity.  Kant  has,  as  is  well  known,  attacked  the 
Aristotelian  doctrine  of  the  ethical  /ueo-JrTjs,  since  he  was  considering 
the  qualitative  difference  of  the  disposition  or  intention  as  the  decid- 
ing principle.  This  is  the  correct  procedure  when  treating  of  the 
moral  subject  that  acts,  but  in  the  objective  development  of  the 
actions  themselves,  we  arrive,  on  the  other  hand,  at  the  determina- 
tion of  a  quantitative  Jimit,  e.  g.,  a  man,  with  the  most  earnest  inten- 
tion of  doing  right,  may  be  in  doubt  whether  he  has  not,  in  any  task, 
done  more  or  less  than  was  fitting  for  him. 

As  no  virtue  can  cease  its  demands  upon  us,  no  one  can  permit 
any  exceptions  or  any  provisional  circumstances  to  come  in  the  way 
of  his  duties.  Our  moral  culture  will  always  certainly  manifest  itself 
in  very  unequal  phases  if  we,  out  of  narrowness  and  weakness,  neg- 
lect entirely  one  virtue  while  we  diligently  cultivate  another.  If 
we  are  forced  into  such  unequal  action,  we  are  not  responsible  for 
the  result ;  but  it  is  dangerous  and  deserves  punishment  if  we  vol- 
untarily encourage  it.  The  pupil  must  be  warned  against  a  certain 
moral  negligence  which  consists  in  yielding  to  certain  weaknesses, 
faults,  or  crimes,  a  little  longer  and  a  little  longer,  because  he  has 
fixed  a  certain  time  after  which  he  intends  to  do  better.  Up  to  that 
time  he  allows  himself  to  be  a  loiterer  in  ethics.  Perhaps  he  will  as- 
sert that  his  companions,  his  surroundings,  his  position,  etc.,  must 
be  changed  before  he  can  alter  his  internal  conduct.  Wherever  edu- 
cation or  temperament  favors  sentimentality,  we  shall  find  birth-days, 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL.  153 

new-year's-day,  confirmation-day,  etc.,  selected  as  these  turning- 
points.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  man  proceeds  in  his  internal  life 
from  epoch  to  epoch,  and  renews  himself  in  his  most  internal  nature, 
nor  can  we  deny  that  moments  like  those  mentioned  are  especially 
favorable  in  man  to  an  effort  toward  self -transformation  because  they 
invite  self-examination ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  permitted  that  the  youth, 
while  looking  forward  to  such  a  moment,  should  consciously  persist 
in  his  evil-doing.  If  he  does,  we  shall  have  as  consequences  that  when 
the  appointed  time  which  he  has  set  at  last  arrives,  at  the  stirring  of 
the  first  emotion  he  perceives  with  terror  that  he  has  changed  noth- 
ing in  himself ;  that  the  same  temptations  are  present  to  him,  the 
same  weakness  takes  possession  of  him.  In  our  business,  in  our  theo- 
retical endeavors,  it  may  certainly  happen  that,  on  account  of  want 
of  time,  or  means,  or  humor,  we  may  put  off  some  work  to  another 
time ;  but  morality  stands  on  a  higher  plane  than  these,  because  it, 
as  the  concrete  absoluteness  of  the  will  [see  commentary  to  §  145 : 
morality  demands  only  such  actions  as  do  not  contradict  the  will  of 
the  social  whole ;  immoral  acts  are  therefore  such  as  would  destroy 
society  if  persisted  in],  makes  unceasing  demand  on  the  whole  and 
undivided  man.  In  morality  there  are  no  vacations,  no  interims. 
As  we  in  ascending  a  flight  of  stairs  take  good  care  not  to  make  a 
single  misstep,  and  give  our  conscious  attention  to  every  step,  so  we 
must  not  allow  any  exceptions  in  moral  affairs,  must  not  appoint 
given  times  for  better  conduct,  but  must  await  these  last  as  natural 
crises,  and  must  seek  to  live  in  time  as  in  eternity. 

[The  dialectic  is  the  interaction  of  the  several  species  of 
virtues,  where  they  conflict,  or  where  they  mutually  limit,  or, 
finally,  where  they  re-enforce  each  other. 

Virtues  are  to  be  practiced  not  because  they  are  pleasurable, 
but  because  of  the  duties  they  involve. 

Some  virtues,  however,  have  negative  and  positive  extremes — 
wherein  they  conflict,  and  find  quantitative  limits.  Aristotle 
mentions  the  following  virtues  as  consisting  in  a  mean  (/ueo^TTjs) 
between  two  extremes — courage  (between  rashness  and  coward- 
ice), temperance,  liberality,  magnificence,  magnanimity,  proper 
mean  between  ambition  and  the  want  of  it,  meekness,  plain 
speaking  of  the  truth,  pleasantry,  sociability,  modesty,  righteous 
indignation. 

No  virtue  may  be  neglected  for  another.  The  worst  results 
follow  from  the  habit  of  procrastinating  the  performance  of  a 


154  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

duty  or  the  indulgence  of  a  weakness  until  a  fixed  day.  The 
person  who  "  turns  over  a  new  leaf  "  on  an  important  epoch  is 
apt  to  turn  it  back  again  soon  after.  The  will  must  not  be 
trifled  with.  Duty  must  be  obeyed  now.  To  permit  a  tempo- 
rary lapse  from  virtue  occasionally  is  as  inadmissible  as  allow- 
ing one's  self  now  and  then  a  misstep  in  ascending  a  flight  of 
stairs.  Such  missteps  undo  the  whole  work.] 

§  14-9.  (5)  From  moral  culture  springs  the  injunction 
of  self-government.  The  action  of  education  on  the 
will  with  a  view  to  form  habits  in  it,  is  discipline  or 
training  in  a  narrower  sense.  Moral  training  teaches  us 
to  know  the  relation  in  which  we  in  fact,  as  historical 
persons,  stand  to  the  idea  of  the  good.  From  our  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  ourselves  as  individuals  we  derive 
the  idea  of  our  limits ;  from  the  absolute  knowledge  of 
ourselves  as  human,  on  the  other  hand,  which  reveals  to 
us  freedom  as  the  innermost  ideal  of  our  spiritual  na- 
ture, we  derive  the  conception  of  the  resistless  power  of 
the  genuine  will  for  the  good.  But  to  actualize  this 
conception  we  must  have  practice.  This  practice  consti- 
tutes the  proper  moral  culture.  Every  man  must  devise 
for  himself  some  special  set  of  rules,  which  shall  be  de- 
termined by  his  peculiarities  and  his  resulting  tempta- 
tions. These  rules  must  have  as  their  innermost  essence 
the  subduing  of  self,  the  vanquishing  of  his  negative 
arbitrariness  by  means  of  the  universality  and  necessity 
of  the  will. 

In  order  to  make  this  easy,  the  youth  may  be  practiced  in  re- 
nouncing for  himself  even  the  arbitrariness  which  is  permitted  to  him. 
One  often  speaks  of  moral  discipline  as  if  it  belonged  especially  to 
the  middle  ages  and  to  Catholicism ;  but  this  is  an  error.  Ascetic 
discipline  in  its  one-sided  form  as  relying  on  works  of  piety,  and  for 
the  purpose  of  mortification,  belongs  to  them ;  but  discipline  in  gen- 
eral is  a  necessary  instrumentality  of  morals.  The  keeping  of  a 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL.  155 

journal  is  said  to  assist  in  the  practice  of  virtue,  but  its  value  de- 
pends on  how  it  is  kept.  To  one  it  may  be  a  curse,  to  another  a 
blessing.  Fichte,  Goethe,  Byron,  and  others,  have  kept  journals  and 
have  been  assisted  thereby ;  while  others,  as  Lavater,  have  been  hin- 
dered by  them.  Vain  people  will  every  evening  record  with  pen  and 
ink  their  admiration  of  the  correct  course  of  life  which  they  have 
led  during  the  day. 

[From  the  exercise  of  virtue  (German  Askese,  not  quite  "as- 
ceticism," from  the  Greek  "Aa-Kijffis)  arises  the  maxim  enjoining 
self-control.  The  will  for  the  good  is  (see  §  145,  commentary) 
.  the  will  for  the  form  of  all  will  that  does  not  contradict  itself — 
the  form  in  which  all  may  act,  never  contradict,  but  always 
re-enforce  each  other,  and  hence  the  good  is  the  form  of  resist- 
less human  might.] 

§  150.  (c)  The  result  of  the  practice  in  virtue,  or,  to 
express  it  philosophically,  of  the  individual  actualization 
of  freedom,  is  the  methodical  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual will  as  character.  This  conception  of  character 
is  a  merely  formal  one,  for  it  considers  only  the  un- 
changeable habit  formed  by  the  will,  and  according  to 
which  it  directs  its  course  in  dealing  with  external  af- 
fairs. As  there  are  good,  strong,  and  beautiful  charac- 
ters, so  there  are  also  bad,  weak,  and  detestable  ones. 
When  in  the  science  of  education,  therefore,  we  speak 
so  much  of  the  building  up  of  a  character,  we  mean 
good  character,  or  the  making  permanent  of  a  direction 
of  the  individual  will  toward  the  actualization  of  the 
good.  Freedom  ought  to  be  the  character  of  character. 
Education  must,  therefore,  observe  closely  the  inter- 
action of  the  factors  which  go  to  form  character,  viz., 
(a)  the  temperament,  as  the  natural  character  of  the 
man ;  (/3)  external  events,  the  historical  element ;  (7) 
the  energy  of  the  will,  by  which,  within  its  limits  of 
nature  and  history,  it  realizes  the  idea  of  the  good  in 


156  THE   SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

and  for  itself  as  the  proper  ethical  character.  Tem- 
perament determines  the  mode  and  manner  of  our  ex- 
ternal manifestation  of  ourselves ;  the  events  in  which 
we  live  assign  to  us  the  ethical  problems,  but  the  will  in 
its  sovereignty  stamps  its  seal  on  the  structure  built  up 
from  these  materials.  Education  aims  at  accustoming 
the  youth  to  freedom,  so  that  he  shall  always  measure 
his  deed  by  the  idea  of  the  good.  It  does  not  desire  a 
formal  independence,  which  may  also  be  called  charac- 
ter, but  a  real  independence  resting  upon  the  conception 
of  freedom  as  that  which  is  absolutely  necessary.  The 
pedagogical  maxim  is,  then :  Be  independent,  but  be  so 
through  doing  good. 

According  to  preconceived  opinion,  stubbornness  and  obstinacy 
indicate  a  firm  basis  of  character.  But  these  may  spring  from  weak- 
ness and  indecision,  on  which  account  one  needs  to  be  well  on  his 
guard.  A  gentle  disposition,  through  enthusiasm  for  the  good,  may 
attain  to  quite  as  great  a  firmness  of  will.  Coarseness  and  meanness 
are  on  no  account  to  be  tolerated. 

[The  methodical  development  of  the  individual  will,  by  the 
practice  of  virtue  or  vice,  produces  character,  in  the  formal  sense 
of  the  word  as  indicating  either  good  or  bad  character.  We 
mean  good  character  when  we  use  the  word  absolutely,  and 
speak  of  a  "person  of  character."  Education  takes  account 
of  the  factors  that  form  character.  (1)  The  temperament  and 
natural  proclivities ;  (2)  the  external  historic  environment ;  (3) 
the  energy  of  the  will.] 

§  151.  (3)  The  consideration  of  the  culture  of  charac- 
ter leads  to  the  subject  of  conscience.  This  is  the  com- 
parison which  the  moral  agent  makes  between  himself 
as  he  is  and  his  ideal  self.  He  compares  himself,  in  his 
past  or  future,  with  his  nature,  and  judges  himself  ac- 
cordingly as  good  or  bad.  This  independence  which 
belongs  to  the  ethical  judgment  is  the  true  soul  of  all 


EDUCATION   OF  THE   WILL.  157 

morality,  the  negation  of  all  self-illusion  and  of  all  de- 
ception through  another.  The  educational  maxim  is: 
Be  conscientious.  Depend  in  your  final  decision  en- 
tirely on  your  conception  of  what  is  right. 

The  self-examination  prompted  by  conscience  prevails  through- 
out all  the  situations  of  life,  and  is  the  ground  of  all  our  rational 
progress.  Fichte's  stern  words  remain,  therefore,  eternally  true: 
"  He  who  has  a  bad  character,  must  absolutely  create  for  himself  a 
better  one." 

[Conscience  the  criticism  which  the  ideal  self  makes  on  the 

realized  self.    This  is  the  highest  authority  within  man.] 


CHAPTER  XV. 

EDUCATION   OF   THE  WILL    (continued). 

(c)  Meligious  Culture. 

§  152.  SOCIAL  culture  contains  the  formal  phase,  mot 
al  culture  the  real  phase,  of  the  practical  mind.  Con' 
science  forms  the  transition  to  religious  culture.  In  its 
universal  and  necessary  nature,  it  reveals  the  absolute 
authority  of  spirit.  The  individual  discerns  in  the 
depths  of  his  own  consciousness  commands  possessing 
universality  and  necessity  to  which  he  has  to  subject 
himself.  They  appear  to  him  as  the  voice  of  God.  Re- 
ligion makes  its  appearance  as  soon  as  the  individual 
distinguishes  the  Absolute  from  himself,  as  a  personal 
Subject  existing  for  and  by  Himself,  and  therefore  for 
him.  The  atheist  remains  at  the  stage  of  insight  into 
the  absoluteness  of  the  logical  and  physical,  aesthetic 
and  practical  categories.  He  may,  therefore,  be  per- 


158     THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION". 

fectly  moral.  But  lie  lacks  religion,  though  he  loves  to 
characterize  his  uprightness  by  this  name,  and  to  trans- 
fer the  dogmatic  definitions  of  positive  religion  into  the 
ethical  sphere.  It  belongs  to  the  province  of  religion 
that  I  demean  myself  toward  the  Absolute  not  merely  as 
my  own  substance,  I  alone  being  the  conscious  subject, 
but  that  for  me  the  substance  in  itself  is  also  a  conscious 
personal  subject.  If  I  look  upon  myself  as  the  only  ab- 
solute, I  make  myself  devoid  of  spiritual  essence.  If  I 
am  the  only  absolute  self-consciousness,  there  remains 
only  the  impulse  to  a  persistent  conflict  with  every  self- 
consciousness  not  identical  with  me.  Such  a  self -con- 
sciousness would  be  only  theoretical  irony  [i.  e.,  it  would 
deny  itself  in  another,  while  it  pretended  to  recognize 
itself  in  that  other].  In  religion  I  know  the  Absolute 
as  essence,  when  I  am  known  by  Him.  Everything  else, 
myself  included,  is  finite  and  transitory,  however  sig- 
nificant it  may  be,  however  relatively  and  for  the  mo- 
ment the  Infinite  may  exist  in  it.  In  all  finite  existence 
the  Infinite  manifests  itself  only  temporarily.  But  the 
Absolute,  realizing  itself,  distinguishing  itself  from  it- 
self even  in  its  unity  with  itself,  is  always  self-identical, 
and  takes  up  all  the  unrest  of  the  phenomenal  world 
back  again  into  its  simple  essence. 

[Politeness  is  the  form,  morality  the  substance  or  reality  of 
the  will  or  practical  side  of  man.  Conscience  is  the  bridge  that 
leads  from  morality  over  to  religion.  Religion  begins  when  the 
individual  recognizes  personality  in  the  highest  principle  in  the 
universe.  A  "  moral  order  of  the  world,"  a  "  persistent  force," 
a  "  supreme  idea,"  and  "  an  absolute  harmony  "  are,  respectively, 
practical,  physical,  logical,  and  esthetic  categories,  but  neither 
of  them  is  a  religious  category.  The  highest  principle  must  be 
a  Person,  and  I  must  recognize  him  as  such,  and  his  recognition 
of  me  is  the  highest  object  of  my  destiny.] 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL.  159 

§  153.  This  process  of  the  individual  spirit,  in  which 
it  rises  out  of  the  multiplicity  of  all  relations  into  union 
with  the  absolute  as  the  substantial  subject,  and  in  whom 
nature  and  history  are  united,  we  may  call,  in  a  re- 
stricted sense,  a  change  of  heart.  .  .  .  The  highest  emo- 
tions of  the  heart  culminate  in  religion,  whose  warmth 
is  inspired  by  practical  activity  and  conscientiousness. 

["  Change  of  heart " — Rosenkranz  says  Gemutli,  which  means 
the  inner  life  of  the  soul  and  also  a  cheerful  disposition.  Hegel 
says  that  only  the  Teutonic  branches  of  the  human  race  possess 
Gemutli,  "  that  undeveloped,  indefinite  totality  of  spiritual  being 
realized  in  the  will  rather  than  in  the  intellect."  The  Romanic 
nations  he  distinguishes  as  having  "  character,"  but  not  Gemutli. 
Character  surrenders  itself  to  a  principle,  but  heart  surrenders 
itself  to  a  principle  only  with  a  reserve,  for  "  heart "  feels  its 
own  personality,  and  will  not  surrender  to  an  abstraction,  but 
only  to  a  person.] 

§  154.  Education  has  to  prepare  man  for  religion  in 
the  following  respects :  (1)  It  gives  him  the  conception 
of  it ;  (2)  it  endeavors  to  have  this  conception  realized 
in  his  life ;  (3)  it  subordinates  the  theoretical  and  practi- 
cal process  in  adapting  him  to  a  special  standpoint  of 
religious  culture. 

In  the  working  out  or  detailed  treatment  of  the  science  of  educa- 
tion, the  position  which  the  conception  of  religion  occupies  is  very 
uncertain.  Many  writers  on  education  place  it  at  the  beginning, 
while  others  reserve  it  for  the  end.  Others  naively  bring  it  forward 
abruptly  in  the  midst  of  heterogeneous  surroundings,  but  know  very 
little  to  say  concerning  it,  and  urge  teachers  to  kindle  the  fire  of  re- 
ligious feeling  in  their  pupils  by  teaching  them  to  fear  God.  Through 
all  their  writing,  we  hear  the  cry  that  in  education  nothing  is  so  im- 
portant as  religion.  Rightly  understood,  this  saying  is  quite  true. 
The  religious  spirit,  the  consciousness  of  the  Absolute,  and  the  rever- 
ence for  Him,  should  permeate  all.  Not  unfrequently,  however,  we 
find  that  what  is  meant  by  religion  is  theology,  or  the  church  cere- 
monial, and  these  are  only  one-sided  phases  of  the  total  religious 


160  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS   OF  EDUCATION. 

process.    [Allusion  to  religion  in  English  colleges  and  universities 

omitted.]    Religion  must  form  the  culminating  point  of  education. 

It  takes  up  into  itself  the  didactical  and  practical  elements,  and  gives 

to  their  matter  a  universal  form. 

[The  respects  in  which  education  has  to  prepare  the  youth  for 
religion  are  threefold :  (1)  It  must  teach  him  its  theory ;  (2)  it 
must  train  him  into  the  habit  of  religious  observances  and  a  re- 
ligious life;  (3)  it  must  make  these  theoretical  and  practical 
phases  of  religion  conform  to  the  tenets  of  some  particular  de- 
nomination or  "  to  some  special  standpoint  of  religious  culture."] 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

EDUCATION   OF    THE   WILL.      (c)    BeligiOUS    Culture   (COD- 

timied). 

(/)  The  Theoretical  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 

§  155.  RELIGION,  in  common  with  every  spiritual 
activity,  must  pass  through  three  stages — feeling,  con- 
ception, and  comprehension.  Whatever  the  special 
character  of  any  religion  may  be,  it  can  not  avoid  this 
psychological  necessity,  either  in  its  general  history  or 
in  the  history  of  the  individual.  The  teacher  must 
understand  this  process,  partly  in  order  that  he  may 
make  it  easier  to  the  pupil,  partly  that  he  may  guard 
against  the  perversion  of  the  religious  feeling  which 
may  arise  through  the  fact  of  the  youth's  remaining  in 
one  stage  after  he  is  ready  for  another  and  needs  it. 
The  science  of  education  must  therefore  here  refer  to 
the  philosophy  of  religion  for  a  complete  discussion  of 
this  idea. 


EDUCATION   OF  THE   WILL.  161 

[Religion  has  three  stages :  (a)  feeling ;  (I)  conception  or  repre- 
sentation ;  (c)  comprehension  or  insight.  These,  it  will  be  noted, 
correspond  to  the  three  psychological  stages  of  the  intellect 
(§  84),  the  perceptive  (or  intuitive),  imaginative,  and  logical 
epochs.] 

§  156.  (1)  Eeligion  exists  first  as  religions  feeling. 
The  individual  is  through  feeling  still  immediately 
under  the  control  of  the  divine,  does  not  yet  distin- 
guish himself  from  the  absoluteness  of  his  own  essence, 
and  is  in  so  far  swayed  by  it.  In  so  far  as  he  feels  the 
divine,  he  is  a  mystery  to  himself.  This  beginning  is 
indispensable.  Religion  can  not  be  produced  in  men 
by  an  education  in  external  matters ;  its  genesis  belongs 
rather  to  the  primitive  depths  in  which  God  himself 
and  the  individual  soul  are  essentially  one. 

The  educator  must  not  allow  himself  to  suppose  that  he  is  able 
to  make  a  religion.  Religion  dwells  originally  in  every  individual 
soul,  for  every  one  is  born  of  God.  Education  can  only  aid  the  de- 
velopment of  the  religious  feeling.  As  far  as  regards  the  psychologi- 
cal form,  it  was  quite  correct  for  Schleiermacher  and  his  followers 
to  characterize  the  essential  element  of  the  religious  feeling  as  the 
feeling  of  dependence,  for  feeling  takes  its  character  from  that 
which  it  feels ;  it  depends  upon  its  object.  But  in  so  far  as  God  con- 
stitutes the  object  of  the  feeling,  there  enters  it  absolute  emancipa- 
tion, or  the  opposite  of  all  dependence.  I  have  maintained  this  in 
opposition  to  Schleiermacher.  Religion  lifts  man  above  the  finite, 
temporal,  and  transitory,  and  frees  him  from  the  pressure  of  external 
circumstances.  Even  the  lowest  form  of  religion  does  this;  and 
when  it  is  said  that  Schleiermacher  has  been  unjustly  criticised  for 
this  expression  of  dependence,  this  distinction  is  overlooked. 

[Peeling  or  emotion  is  the  indispensable  first  basis  of  religion. 
But  if  it  goes  no  further  than  mere  feeling,  the  devotee  does  not 
find  himself  able  to  recognize  God  as  personal.  To  him  God  is 
therefore  a  fetich,  an  immediate  manifestation  in  matter,  and 
hostile  to  man's  freedom  and  intelligence.  Schleiermacher  held 
that  religion  arose  in  the  feeling  of  dependence,  and  that  this 
remained  its  essential  element.  But  Rosenkranz  points  out  that 


162  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

religion  lifts  man  above  the  trammels  of  the  finite  and  transi- 
tory, and  therefore  gives  him  independence  of  the  world.] 

§  157.  But  religious  feeling  as  such  rises  into  some- 
thing higher  when  the  spirit  distinguishes  the  content 
of  this  religious  feeling  from  any  other  content  which 
it  also  feels,  forms  for  itself  a  mental  image  of  it,  and 
thus  objectifies  it,  and  thereby  is  enabled  to  assume  a 
free  attitude  toward  it. 

We  must  not  understand  that  the  religious  feeling  is  destroyed 
in  this  process ;  in  rising  from  vague  feeling  to  a  mental  image  of 
the  object  of  feeling,  it  persists  as  a  necessary  form  of  the  intelli- 
gence. 

[A  higher  stage  of  religion  rises  out  of  this  vague  and  nebu- 
lous condition  of  mere  feeling,  and  begins  to  define  the  divine  as 
an  object  of  the  imagination.] 

§  158.  If  the  mind  is  held  back  and  prevented  from 
passing  out  of  the  simplicity  of  feeling  into  the  act  of 
distinguishing  its  object  by  perception,  or  recalling  it 
and  representing  it  as  a  mental  image,  if  its  efforts 
toward  the  forming  of  this  representation  are  continually 
redissolved  into  feeling,  then  feeling,  which  w^as  as  the 
first  step  perfectly  healthy  and  correct,  will  become 
morbid  and  degenerate  into  a  wretched  mysticism. 
Education  must,  therefore,  remember  that  this  feeling 
is  not  destroyed  by  the  progress  of  its  content  into  per- 
ception and  conception  on  the  side  of  psychological 
form,  but  rather  that  it  attains  truth  thereby. 

[Mysticism  is  produced  by  the  arrested  development  of  re- 
ligious feeling.  The  devotee  holds  back  from  mental  images 
and  forms  of  the  imagination,  fearing  to  anthropomorphize  the 
conception  of  the  Divine  Being.  He  does  not,  however,  for  this 
reason,  attain  a  purer  idea  of  Him,  but  tends  rather  to  destroy 
all  the  attributes  of  personality  in  his  conception  of  the  Absolute, 
and  leave  it  an  empty  abstraction  like  the  Brahm  of  the  Hindoos, 
or  the  Supreme  Being  (V£tre  Supreme)  of  the  French  deists. 


EDUCATION   OF  THE   WILL.  163 

Education,  therefore,  makes  a  mistake  if  it  attempts  to  elevate 
the  pupil  at  once  from  the  stage  of  feeling  to  that  of  compre- 
hension and  insight  without  passing  through  the  stage  of  im- 
agination.] 

§  159.  (2)  Representation  retains  perception,  trans- 
formed into  conception.  It  develops  the  different  phases 
of  the  religious  content,  and  follows  each  of  these  to  its 
consequence.  Imagination  controls  the  individual  con- 
ceptions, but  by  no  means  with  that  absoluteness  which 
is  often  supposed  ;  for  each  picture  has  in  itself  its  logi- 
cal consequence  to  which  imagination  must  yield ;  e.  g., 
if  a  religion  represents  God  as  an  animal,  or  as  half  ani- 
mal and  half  man,  or  as  man,  the  conception  chosen  has 
in  its  development  its  consequences  for  the  imagination. 

[Religious  imagination  is  not  mere  idle  fancy,  but  its  images 
have  a  logical  sequence,  and  adumbrate  a  series  of  profound 
ideas.] 

§  160.  We  rise  out  of  the  stage  of  representation 
when  the  mind  tries  to  define  the  universality  of  its 
content  according  to  its  necessity,  i.  e.,  when  it  begins 
to  think.  But  for  the  imagination  the  necessity  of  its 
pictures  is  a  hidden  assumption.  The  thinking  ac- 
tivity, however,  recognizes  not  only  the  contradiction 
which  exists  between  the  sensuous,  limited  form  of  the 
individual  representation,  and  the  essential  nature  of  its 
content,  but  also  the  contradiction  in  which  the  concep- 
tions find  themselves  with  respect  to  each  other. 

[It  is  in  attempting  to  discover  the  contents  of  these  religious 
images  that  the  mind  rises  to  the  true  concrete  insight.  Thought 
needs  at  first  these  mental  pictures,  and  without  them  can  not 
begin  at  all.  Hence  so-called  deism,  which  rejects  the  imagina- 
tive stage  of  religious  culture  altogether,  is  not  able  to  rise  to  a 
concrete  doctrine  of  God  as  a  divine  human  Person  such  as 
Christianity  reveals,  but  makes  Him  to  be  a  being  with  the  nega- 
17 


164:  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

tion  of  all  attributes,  because  such  a  deity  transcends  everything 
finite,  and  everything  thinkable  is  regarded  as  finite.] 

§  161.  If  the  mind  is  prevented  from  passing  out  of 
the  motley  pictures  of  conception  to  the  supersensuous 
clearness  and  simplicity  possessed  by  the  object  of  the 
thinking  activity — if  the  content  which  it  already  be- 
gins to  seize  as  idea  is  again  dissolved  into  the  discon- 
nected images  of  the  picture-world — then  the  religion  of 
imagination,  which  was  a  perfectly  proper  form  as  the 
second  step,  becomes  perverted  into  some  form  of  idola- 
try, either  coarse  or  refined.  Education  must  therefore 
not  oppose  the  thinking  activity  if  the  latter  undertakes 
to  criticise  the  images  and  pictures  in  which  religious 
conceptions  are  embodied;  on  the  contrary,  it  must 
seek  to  guide  this  thinking  activity  so  that  the  dis- 
covery of  the  contradictions  which  unavoidably  adhere 
to  sensuous  form  shall  not  mislead  the  youth  into  the 
folly  of  throwing  away,  with  the  husk  that  has  become 
useless,  also  the  religious  kernel  itself. 

It  is  an  error  for  educators  to  desire  to  hold  back  the  imagi- 
nation from  religious  feeling,  but  it  is  also  an  error  to  detain  the 
mind,  which  is  on  its  formal  side  essentially  the  activity  of  knowing, 
in  the  stage  of  imagination,  and  confine  it  to  the  office  of  picturing 
the  conventional  religious  allegories.  The  more,  in  opposition  to 
this,  the  mind  is  carried  away  with  the  charm  of  thinking,  the  more 
is  it  in  danger  of  condemning  the  essence  of  religion  itself  as  a  mere 
fictitious  conception.  As  a  transition-stage  the  religion  of  imagina- 
tion is  perfectly  normal,  and  it  does  not  in  the  least  impair  freedom 
if,  for  example,  one  has  personified  evil  as  a  living  devil  in  bodily 
shape.  The  error  does  not  lie  in  this,  but  in  the  making  independ- 
ent existences  out  of  these  sensuous  forms  of  religion.  The  reaction 
of  the  thinking  activity  against  such  sensuous  embodiment  then 
undertakes  in  its  negative  freedom  and  independence  as  realized  in 
critical  thought  to  despise  the  content  also,  as  if  it  were  a  mere  con- 
ception. 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL.  165 

[Again,  if  religion  is  arrested  at  the  standpoint  of  imagination, 
it  becomes  fixed  in  the  form  of  idolatry.  Hence,  education  has 
before  it  the  difficult  task  (especially  in  our  Sunday-schools)  of 
guiding  rather  than  repressing  the  critical  tendency  of  pupils 
who  are  beginning  to  inquire  for  themselves  into  the  contradic- 
tions and  absurdities  of  the  images  and  allegories  in  which  the 
imagination  has  embodied  religious  truth.  Spiritually  under- 
stood, these  very  contradictions  are  the  most  wonderful  and  ad- 
mirable product  of  the  history  of  religion,  and  altogether  the 
most  valuable  and  profound  part  of  its  revelation.] 

§  162.  (3)  In  the  thinking  activity  the  mind  attains 
that  form  of  the  religions  content  which  is  identical 
with  that  of  its  simple  self -consciousness,  and  above 
which  there  is  no  further  progress  for  the  intelligence 
as  theoretical.  Bnt  we  distinguish  three  varieties  in 
this  thinking  activity :  the  abstract,  the  reflective,  and 
the  speculative.  The  abstract  gives  ns  the  religions 
content  of  consciousness  in  the  form  of  abstractions  or 
dogmas,  i.  e.,  propositions  which  set  up  some  doctrine 
as  a  universal,  and  add  to  it  a  reason  for  its  neces- 
sity. The  reflective  stage  busies  itself  with  the  mutual 
relation  of  dogmas,  and  with  an  examination  of  the 
grounds  alleged  for  their  necessity ;  it  is  essentially 
critical,  and  hence  skeptical.  The  discussion  of  the 
dogmas,  which  is  carried  on  in  this  process  of  reasoning 
and  skeptical  investigation,  gives  place  to  speculative 
thinking,  which  recognizes  the  free  unity  of  the  con- 
tent and  its  form  as  its  own  proper  self-determination 
of  the  content,  creating  its  own  differences.  Education 
must  know  these  three  stages  of  the  intelligence,  partly 
that  it  may  in  advance  preserve  an  equipoise,  and  pre- 
vent going  to  extremes  in  the  midst  of  the  changes 
which  the  progressive  development  produces  in  the 
consciousness ;  partly  that  it  may  be  able  to  direct  the 


166     THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

process  of  change  itself,  in  accordance  with  the  proper 
order  of  development  of  these  phases  of  mind.  "We 
should,  for  example,  not  try  to  prevent  the  criticism  of 
the  abstract  understanding  by  the  reflective  stage  nor 
that  of  the  imagination  by  the  thinking  activity.  But 
the  stage  of  reflection  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  the  last 
and  highest  possibility  of  the  thinking  activity,  although, 
in  the  vain  conceit  of  its  skepticism,  it  often  takes  itself 
for  such,  and,  with  the  emptiness  of  mere  negation  to 
which  it  holds,  often  brings  itself  forward  into  unde- 
sirable prominence.  It  becomes  evident,  in  this  view, 
how  very  necessary  for  man,  with  respect  to  religion,  is 
a  genuine  philosophical  culture,  so  that  he  may  not  lose 
a  sure  conviction  of  the  existence  of  the  Absolute  in  a 
life  of  culture  divided  between  adherence  to  unyielding 
dogmas  on  the  one  hand,  and  shifting,  unstable  opinions 
on  the  other  hand. 

[Three  varieties  of  religious  thought  on  the  plane  of  insight : 
(a)  abstract,  (b)  reflective,  (c)  speculative.  The  abstract  sets 
forth  the  doctrines  as  abstract  dogmas.  The  reflective  busies 
itself  over  the  mutual  relation  of  the  dogmas  and  the  proofs 
of  their  necessity.  This  leads  to  skepticism.  The  speculative 
thinking  sees  the  logical  necessity  of  self -activity  in  the  Abso- 
lute, and  hence  the  consequent  logical  necessity  for  concrete 
attributes  such  as  belong  to  a  Creator.  It  recognizes  the  person- 
ality of  the  Absolute,  and  now  comprehends  the  contradictions 
and  apparent  absurdities  in  the  allegorical  forms  submitted  to  it.] 

§  163.  Education  must  then  not  fear  the  overthrow 
of  dogmatic  abstraction,  since  its  downfall  is  an  indis- 
pensable means  for  theoretical  culture  in  its  totality, 
and  the  consciousness  can  not  dispense  with  it  in  its 
history.  But  education  has,  in  dealing  with  concrete 
cases,  carefully  to  discern  in  which  of  these  stages  of 
culture  its  pupil  is.  For  if  mankind  as  a  race  can  not 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL.  167 

get  along  without  philosophy,  it  by  no  means  follows 
that  this  necessity  exists  for  each  individual.  To  chil- 
dren, to  women,  and  to  all  simple  and  limited  lives,  the 
form  of  the  religion  of  the  imagination  is  well  suited, 
and  the  form  of  religion  for  the  speculative  intellect 
has  only  a  small  degree  of  significance  to  them.  Edu- 
cation must  not,  then,  desire  powerfully  and  prema- 
turely to  develop  the  thinking  activity  before  the  in- 
telligence has  grown  through  the  earlier  stages  of 
development. 

The  forced  efforts  at  thinking  which  many  teachers  demand  in 
the  sphere  of  religion  is  no  less  impractical  than  the  want  of  all 
guidance  into  rightly  ordered  meditations  on  religious  subjects.  It 
is  natural  that  to  the  lower  form  of  intelligence  a  higher  form  should 
appear  to  be  frivolous  in  its  behavior  toward  it,  because  it  has  as  yet 
felt  no  need  of  change  of  form  as  the  higher  has ;  and  on  this  ac- 
count it  looks  upon  the  discrediting  of  a  sacred  symbol  or  emblem 
or  the  overthrow  of  a  dogma  as  the  destruction  of  religion  itself.  In 
our  time  the  idea  is  very  prevalent  that  the  substance  itself  must 
change  with  the  changing  of  the  psychological  form,  and  that  there- 
fore a  religion  on  the  stage  of  feeling  can  no  longer  be  the  same  in 
its  essence  with  a  religion  on  the  stage  of  representation  in  mental 
images,  or  on  the  stage  of  clear  thought.  These  suppositions,  which 
are  so  popular,  and  are  considered  to  be  high  philosophy,  spring 
from  the  superficiality  of  psychological  inquiry. 

[Religious  education,  therefore,  must  not  fear  these  changes 
from  feeling  to  imagination  and  from  imagination  to  reflection, 
for  they  are  indispensable  to  the  full  religious  consciousness, 
and  Christianity  is  essentially  a  religion  of  all  these  stages,  and 
especially  of  the  highest  thought.  Just  as  in  psychology  we  said 
that  thinking  goes  back  and  re-enforces  sense-perception  and 
conception  (§  100),  so  the  stage  of  insight  goes  back  and  re- 
enforces  religious  feeling  and  religious  imagination.  And  it  is 
for  feeling  and  imagination  only  as  thus  re-enforced  by  thinking 
insight  that  Christianity  is  the  true  religion.  But  for  all  this  it 
is  by  no  means  proper  to  attempt  to  prematurely  develop  the 
stage  of  religious  insight,  for  such  attempt  can  only  end  in  pro- 


168     THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

ducing  that  critical  skeptical  stage  above  described.  It  is  in« 
teresting  to  notice  the  view  that  Rosenkranz  holds  concerning 
the  capacity  of  women  to  understand  philosophy.  It  was  the 
common  view  held  throughout  the  civilized  world  forty  years 
ago,  when  this  book  was  written.  Since  that  time  the  education 
of  girls  has  ascended  step  by  step  until  college  education  has 
proved  the  mind  of  woman  specially  adapted  to  high  studies.] 

§  164.  The  theoretical  education  of  the  religious 
feeling  endeavors,  therefore,  to  unite  the  presupposi- 
tion of  reason  in  the  religious  content  with  the  freedom 
of  philosophical  criticism,  and  to  elevate  it  to  self- 
assured  insight  by  means  of  the  proof  of  the  necessity 
of  its  determinations.  This  is  the  only  reasonable  peda- 
gogical way,  not  only  to  prevent  the  degeneration  of  the 
religious  consciousness  into  a  miserable  mysticism  or 
into  empty  formality,  but  also  to  remove  these  if  they 
are  already  existent. 

External  seclusion  avails  nothing.  The  crises  of  the  world- 
historical  changes  in  the  religious  consciousness  penetrate  the 
thickest  cloister-walls.  .  .  . 

[Theoretical  religious  education  endeavors  to  re-enforce  the 
stages  of  religious  emotion  and  religious  imagination  by  the 
stage  of  insight  into  the  necessary  nature  of  the  divine.] 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL.     (<?)  Religious  Culture  (con- 
tinued). 

(#)  The  Practical  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 

§  165.  THEORETICAL  education  has  already  a  practical 
implication,  for  it  gives  man  definite  conceptions  and 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   WILL.  169 

thoughts  of  the  Divine,  and  defines  his  relation  to  God. 
But  in  a  narrower  sense  that  education  is  practical 
which  relates  to  the  Will  as  such.  Education  has  in 
this  respect  to  distinguish  (1)  consecration,  (2)  the  ini- 
tiation of  the  youth  into  the  forms  of  worship  as  found 
in  some  particular  religion,  and  (3)  his  reconciliation 
with  his  lot. 

[The  will  side  of  religious  education  is  treated  under  three 
heads:  (a)  consecration  of  self;  (&)  ceremonial  initiation,  and 
uniting  with  the  church ;  (c)  religious  reconciliation  with  one's 
lot  in  life.] 

§  166.  (1)  Religious  feeling  presupposes  morality  as 
an  indispensable  condition  without  which  it  can  not  at- 
tain its  ideal.  But  while  man  from  a  merely  moral 
standpoint  places  himself  in  relation  to  the  idea  of  duty, 
the  religious  standpoint  of  the  Church  differs  from  it  in 
this,  that  it  holds  the  necessity  of  the  good  to  be  the 
self-determination  of  the  Divine  "Will,  and  thus  gives  all 
human  conduct  a  personal  relation  to  God,  changing  the 
good  to  the  holy  and  evil  to  sin.  Education  must, 
therefore,  first  accustom  the  youth  to  the  idea  that,  in 
doing  the  good,  he  unites  himself  with  God  as  with  the 
absolute  Person,  but  that  in  doing  evil  he  separates  him- 
self from  him.  The  consciousness  that  through  his 
deed  he  comes  into  relation  with  God  himself,  affirma- 
tively or  negatively,  deepens  the  moral  standpoint  with 
its  formal  obedience  to  the  commands  of  virtue,  to  the 
standpoint  of  the  heart  that  finds  its  all-sufficient  prin- 
ciple in  love. 

[Distinction  between  the  moral  and  the  religious  standpoint. 
While  the  moral  makes  duty  the  highest,  the  religious  looks 
upon  the  good  as  the  action  of  the  Divine  Will,  and  thus  places 
the  individual  in  a  direct  personal  relation  to  God.  The  good 


170  THE   SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

thus  becomes  the  holy,  and  evil  becomes  sin.  The  distinction 
between  sin,  crime,  and  evil  is  a  very  interesting  one:  sin  is 
violence  done  by  the  individual  to  his  relation  to  God's  will ; 
evil  is  a  general  negation  of  the  form  of  self -activity,  and  hence 
negative  to  the  interests  of  humanity — moral  evil  being  the  self- 
contradiction  of  the  will,  or  the  will  of  the  individual  set  against 
the  will  of  mankind  in  general ;  crime  is  the  negation  of  the 
law  of  the  state ;  crime  must  be  an  overt  act — a  deed  actually 
done  and  not  merely  deliberated  upon ;  but  it  must  be  a  deed 
intended  to  be  done.  Sin  is  internal,  and  may  or  may  not  be 
accompanied  by  external  deeds.  In  contrast  to  crime  it  lies  in 
the  disposition  of  the  heart.  Moral  evil  may  be  conscious  or  un- 
conscious— strictly  moral  evil  must  be  conscious  and  a  violation 
of  conscience.  But  ethically  all  attacks  upon  institutions, 
family,  society,  state,  church,  are  moral  evils,  whether  the  in- 
tention is  good  or  bad.  The  plea  of  conscience  is  not  valid  to 
justify  a  murder,  an  assault  on  the  state  or  the  church,  or  on 
the  sacredness  of  the  family.] 

§  167.  (2)  The  ceremonial  recognition  of  the  sense 
which  grows  in  the  child  that  he  has  an  uninterrupted 
personal  relation  to  the  Absolute  as  a  person,  constitutes 
the  beginning  of  the  practical  education  in  religion. 
The  second  step  is  the  initiation  of  the  child  into  the 
objective  forms  of  worship  established  in  some  particu- 
lar religion.  Through  religious  training  the  child  learns 
to  renounce  his  egotism ;  through  attendance  on  religious 
services  he  learns  to  give  expression  to  his  religious  feel- 
ing in  prayer,  in  the  use  of  symbols,  and  in  church  fes- 
tivals. Education  must,  however,  endeavor  to  retain 
freedom  with  regard  to  these  forms,  so  that  they  shall 
not  be  confounded  with  religion  itself.  Religion  pre- 
sents itself  in  these  ceremonies,  but  they  as  mere  forms 
are  of  value  only  in  so  far  as  there  dwells  in  them  the 
spirit  which  produces  them  as  its  external  manifestation. 

If  the  mechanism  of  ceremonial  forms  is  taken  as  religion  itself, 
the  service  of  God  degenerates  into  the  false  service  of  religion,  as 


EDUCATION  OP  THE  WILL. 

Kant  has  designated  it  in  "  Religion  within  the  Limits  of  Pure  Rea- 
son." Nothing  is  more  destructive  of  the  sensibility  to  all  real  re- 
ligious culture  than  the  want  of  earnestness  with  which  prayers, 
readings  from  the  Bible,  attendance  on  church,  the  communion,  etc., 
are  often  practiced  by  teachers.  But  one  must  not  conclude,  from 
this  defect  on  the  part  of  teachers,  that  an  ignorance  of  all  sacred 
forms  in  general  would  be  more  desirable  for  the  child. 

[The  religious  discipline  of  consecration  educates  to  renuncia- 
tion of  selfish  egotism,  while  the  union  with  the  church  teaches 
the  expression  of  the  religious  feeling  in  prayer,  the  use  of 
symbols,  and  the  observance  of  the  solemnities  of  the  church* 
Education  has  to  guard,  however,  against  the  danger  of  con- 
founding forms  with  religion  itself.] 

§  168.  (3)  It  is  possible  that  a  man  on  the  standpoint 
of  ecclesiastical  religions  observances  may  be  fnlly  con- 
tented ;  he  may  be  entirely  taken  np  with  the  ceremo- 
nies of  worship,  and  pass  his  life  in  these  occupations 
in  perfect  religions  peace.  Bnt  by  far  the  greater  num- 
ber of  men  will  see  themselves  forced  to  experience  the 
truth  of  religion  in  the  hard  vicissitudes  of  their  lot, 
since  they  engage  in  secular  activities,  and  create  for 
themselves  a  past  whose  consequences  condition  their 
future.  They  limit  themselves  through  their  deeds, 
which  they  perform  as  partly  voluntary  and  partly  in- 
voluntary authors :  involuntary,  in  so  far  as  they  are  im- 
pelled to  their  deeds  by  the  totality  of  events ;  voluntary, 
in  so  far  as  they  originate  them  and  react  on  the  world 
around  them.  Nay,  man  is  responsible  for  deeds  of 
omission  as  well  as  of  commission.  The  history  of  the  in- 
dividual man  appears,  therefore,  on  the  one  hand,  if  we 
consider  its  material,  as  the  work  of  circumstances ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  if  we  reflect  on  the  form,  as  the  act 
of  a  self-determining  agent.  "Want  of  freedom  (the  be- 
ing determined  through  the  given  situation)  and  free- 


172  THE   SPECIAL   ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

dom  (the  origination  of  the  act)  are  united  in  actual  life 
as  a  finality  which  is  exactly  so,  and  can  not  become 
anything  else.  The  essence  of  the  spiritual  being  stands 
always  over  against  this  unavoidable  limitation  as  that 
which  is  in  itself  infinite  and  eternal,  as  beyond  all  his- 
tory, because  the  absolute  spirit,  in  and  for  itself,  has  no 
history.  That  which  man  calls  his  history  is  only  the 
manifesting  of  himself  and  his  continual  withdrawal 
out  of  this  manifestation  into  himself,  an  act  which  co- 
incides witli  the  transcending  of  all  manifestation  on 
the  part  of  the  absolute  spirit.  From  this  infinite  es- 
sential nature  which  belongs  to  him  there  arises  for  the 
individual  spirit  the  impulse  toward  a  beatific  life,  i.  e., 
a  life  freed  from  external  contingencies  even  in  the 
midst  of  their  process.  He  gratifies  this  impulse  nega- 
tively through  the  contemplation  of  what  has  happened 
as  past  and  gone,  as  that  which  lives  now  only  ideally 
in  the  memory ;  or  he  contemplates  it  in  a  new  actual 
existence  more  perfect  than  the  old  one  which  he  has 
planned  in  order  to  realize  the  idea  of  freedom  which 
constitutes  his  ideal  nature.  This  constant  new-birth 
out  of  the  grave  of  the  past  to  the  life  of  a  more  beau- 
tiful future  is  the  true  solution  of  the  problem  of  life. 
The  false  solution  may  assume  different  forms.  It  may 
abstain  from  all  action  because  man  through  action  limits 
himself  and  becomes  accountable  to  others ;  but  this  is 
to  despair  of  freedom,  for  it  condemns  the  spiritual  be- 
ing to  the  loss  of  its  selfhood ;  for  its  nature  demands 
activity.  The  abstract  quietism  of  the  Indian  yogis,  of 
the  Buddhists,  of  the  fanatical  ascetics,  of  the  Protest- 
ant recluses,  etc.,  is  an  error  of  this  kind.  Or,  second- 
ly, man  may  become  indifferent  to  the  ethical  conse- 


EDUCATION   OF  THE  WILL.  173 

quences  of  his  deeds.  In  this  case  he  acts,  it  is  true ; 
but,  because  he  has  no  faith  in  the  necessary  connection 
of  his  deeds  with  their  consequences  as  results  of  his 
choice,  a  connection  which  he  would  ascribe  to  mere 
chance,  he  loses  his  spiritual  essence.  This  is  the  error 
of  indifference  and  its  trifling,  which  denies  the  open 
mystery  of  human  life  as  built  up  by  freedom  out  of 
materials  furnished  by  Fate.  Education  must,  there- 
fore, imbue  man  with  respect  for  the  circumstances  and 
events  of  his  environment,  and  at  the  same  time  inspire 
with  faith  in  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  the  human 
spirit,  since  only  by  continually  producing  better  things 
can  he  elevate  himself  above  his  past.  This  practical 
acknowledgment  of  the  necessity  of  freedom  as  the  de- 
termining principle  of  life  gives  the  highest  satisfaction, 
to  which  practical  religious  feeling  may  arrive,  for  the 
state  of  beatitude  develops  itself  in  it — that  blessedness 
which  refuses  to  admit  that  it  is  circumscribed  by  fini- 
tude  and  transitoriness,  and  which  possesses  the  undy- 
ing courage  to  strive  always  anew  for  perfection,  with 
cheerful  resignation  when  defeated ;  and  by  this  means 
happiness  and  misery,  pleasure  and  pain,  are  conquered 
by  the  power  of  disinterested  self-sacrifice  and  sincere 
humility. 

The  escape  from  action  in  an  artificial  exclusion  of  all  relation 
to  external  events,  which  often  sinks  to  a  veritable  brutifying  of  man, 
is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  all  monkish  education.  In  our  time 
[1848]  there  is  especial  need  of  a  reconciliation  between  man  and  des- 
tiny, for  all  the  world  is  discontented.  The  worst  form  of  discontent 
is  when  one  is,  as  the  French  say,  blase  ;  though  the  word  is  not,  as 
many  fancy,  originally  French,  but  from  the  Greek  jSAcffc/j/,  to  wither. 
It  is  true  that  all  culture  passes  through  phases,  each  of  which  be- 
comes temporarily  and  relatively  wearisome,  and  that  in  so  far  one 


174:  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

may  be  blase  in  any  age.  But  in  modern  times  this  state  of  feeling 
has  increased  to  that  of  thorough  disgust  at  existence — disgust  which 
nevertheless  at  the  same  time  hungers  for  enjoyment.  The  one  who 
is  blase  has  enjoyed  everything,  experienced  everything,  mocked  at 
everything.  He  has  passed  from  the  enjoyment  of  pleasure  to  sen- 
timentality, i.  e.,  to  rioting  in  feeling ;  from  sentimentality  to  that 
irony  which  despises  the  shallowness  of  mere  feeling,  and  from  this 
to  the  tormenting  consciousness  of  his  entire  weakness  and  empti- 
ness wrhen  he  has  discarded  feeling.  He  ridicules  this  also,  as  if  it 
were  a  consolation  to  fling  away  the  universe  like  a  squeezed  lemon, 
and  to  assert  that  in  empty  nothing  lies  the  truth  of  all  things.  And 
yet,  nevertheless,  this  irony  furnishes  the  point  on  which  education 
can  fasten,  in  order  to  kindle  anew  in  him  the  religious  feeling,  and 
to  lead  him  back  to  a  loving  recognition  of  the  world,  and  to  a 
proper  interest  in  the  circumstances  and  events  of  his  time.  The 
greatest  difficulty  which  education  has  to  encounter  here  is  the  co- 
quetting with  this  blase  mood,  the  miserable  affectation  of  superior- 
ity, and  the  self-ccmplacency  which  have  undermined  the  man  and 
made  him  incapable  of  all  simple  and  natural  enjoyment.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  assert  that  many  pupils  of  our  Gymnasia  are  affected 
with  this  malady.  Our  literature  is  full  of  its  products.  We  inveigh 
against  its  dissipation,  and  nevertheless  at  the  same  time  can  not  re- 
sist a  certain  kind  of  pleasure  in  it.  Diabolical  sentimentality ! 

[Religious  peace  does  not  often  come  to  the  individual  solely 
through  personal  consecration  and  the  strict  performance  of 
ceremonial  observances.  It  is  the  encountering  of  the  hard 
vicissitudes  of  life  that  brings  home  to  the  individual  the 
lessons  of  religion  and  elevates  him  to  that  higher  religious 
state  of  mind  called  reconciliation  with  one's  lot,  or  religious 
peace  and  consolation  which  are  a  sure  indication  that  this  indi- 
vidual has  renounced  the  world  and  has  joined  his  life  to  the 
eternal  order,  and  is  therefore  secure  from  the  arrows  of  fortune, 
no  matter  how  much  his  energies  may  be  given  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  tempolfcl  enterprises.  Quietism,  which  renounces 
all  action,  is  the  false  religious  peace,  for  spirit  is  essential  ac- 
tivity, and  the  will  must  forever  realize  the  good  anew  by 
changing  nature  into  a  more  pliant  instrument  of  the  spirit. 
The  antithesis  of  this  consolation  of  religion  is  the  state  of  mind 
described  as  blase  and  Weltschmerz.'] 


EDUCATION   OF  THE   WILL.  175 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL,    (c)  Religious  Culture 
(continued). 

(3)  The  Absolute  Process  of  Religious  Culture. 

§  169.  IN  comparing  the  stages  of  the  theoretical 
and  practical  culture  of  the  religious  feeling  their  in- 
ternal correspondence  appears.  Feeling,  as  immediate 
knowledge  of  God,  and  the  consecration  of  the  objects 
of  sense  to  holy  purposes  by  means  of  piety;  imagina 
tion  with  all  its  images,  and  the  church  services  with 
their  symbolism  and  ceremonial  observances;  finally, 
the  comprehending  of  religion  in  its  highest  spiritual 
meaning,  and  the  reconciliation  of  man  with  his  lot  as 
the  internal  emancipation  from  the  dominion  of  external 
events — all  these  correspond  to  each  other.  If  we  grasp 
this  parallelism  as  a  whole,  we  have  the  course  which 
religion  must  take  in  its  historical  process,  in  which  ifr 
(1)  begins  as  natural,  (2)  goes  on  to  historical  differences 
of  form,  and  (3)  unites  these  finally  in  a  rational  faith. 
These  stages  await  every  man  in  so  far  as  he  lives 
through  a  complete  religious  culture,  but  this  may  be 
for  the  individual  a  question  of  chance. 

[The  absolute  process  of  religious  culture  would  take  one 
through  three  stages :  (a)  beginning  with  the  natural,  (b)  it 
would  next  develop  differences  of  form,  and  (c)  unite  these, 
through  insight,  in  a  rational  faith.] 

§  170.  (1)  A  child  has  as  yet  no  definite  religious 
feeling.     He  is  still  only  a  possibility  capable  of  growth 

in  all  directions.     But,  since  he  is  a  spiritual  being,  the 
18 


176  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

.essence  of  religion  is  active  in  him,  though  as  yet  in  an 
unconscious  form.  The  substance  of  spirit  attests  its 
presence  in  every  individual,  through  his  mysterious 
impulse  toward  the  infinite  and  eternal,  and  toward  in- 
tercourse with  God.  This  is  the  elementary  stage  of 
natural  religion,  which  must  not  be  confounded  with 
the  religion  which  makes  Nature  the  object  of  worship 
(fetichism,  etc.). 

[In  the  child  brought  up  in  modern  civilization  natural  re- 
ligion manifests  itself  as  an  impulse  toward  the  infinite  and 
eternal,  and  toward  communion  with  God.] 

§  171.  (2)  But  the  child  comes  in  contact  with  defi- 
nite forms  of  religion,  and  will  naturally,  through  the 
mediation  of  the  family,  be  introduced  to  some  one  of 
them.  His  religious  feeling  takes  now  a  particular  di- 
rection, and  he  accepts  religion  in  one  of  its  historical 
forms.  This  special  realization  of  religion  meets  the 
precise  want  of  the  child,  because  it  brings  into  his  con- 
sciousness, by  means  of  teaching  and  forms  of  worship, 
the  principal  elements  which  are  found  in  the  nature  of 
religion. 

[The  family  introduces  the  child  to  its  own  chosen  form  of 
worship,  and  he  accepts  it  and  finds  in  it  satisfaction.] 

§  172  (3)  In  contradistinction  to  the  natural  basis  of 
religious  feeling,  all  historical  religions  rest  on  the  au- 
thoritative basis  of  revelation  from  God  to  man.  They 
address  themselves  to  the  imagination,  and  offer  a  system 
of  objective  forms  of  worship  and  ceremonies.  But 
spirit,  as  eternal,  as  self-identical,  can  not  forbear  as 
thinking  activity  to  subject  the  traditional  religion  to 
criticism  and  to  compare  it  as  a  phenomenal  existence 
with  its  perfect  ideal.  From  this  criticism  arises  a  re- 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  WILL.  177 

ligion  which  satisfies  the  demands  of  the  reason,  and 
which,  by  means  of  insight  into  the  necessity  of  the  his- 
torical process,  leads  to  the  exercise  of  a  genuine  tolera- 
tion toward  its  many-sided  forms.  This  religion  recon- 
ciles the  unity  of  the  thinking  consciousness  with  the 
religious  dogmas  and  ceremonies,  which,  in  the  history 
of  religious  feeling,  appear  theoretically  as  dogma,  and 
practically  as  the  command  of  an  absolute  and  incom- 
prehensible authority.  The  religion  of  reason  is  just  as 
simple  as  the  unsophisticated  natural  religious  feeling, 
but  its  simplicity  is  at  the  same  time  master  of  itself. 
It  is  just  as  specific  in  its  determinations  as  any  histori- 
cal form  of  religion,  but  its  determinateness  is  at  the 
same  time  universal,  since  it  is  worked  out  by  the  think- 
ing reason. 

[If  the  individual  reflects  on  the  nature  of  religion  in  itself 
arid  the  ground  for  its  appearance  in  this  or  that  denomina- 
tional form,  he  may  arrive  at  a  justification  of  all  forms  and 
ceremonies,  finding  the  occasion  of  each  in  its  historic  genesis. 
In  this  he  reaches  a  genuine  toleration,  but  not  the  negative 
state  of  indifference  that  is  wont  to  accompany  toleration ;  for 
he  sees,  through  these  forms,  their  revelation  of  the  divine.] 

§  173.  Education  must  superintend  the  development 
of  the  religious  consciousness  toward  an  insight  into  the 
necessary  sequence  of  its  different  stages.  Nothing  is 
more  absurd  than  for  the  educator  to  desire  to  avoid  the 
introduction  of  a  particular  form  of  religion,  or  a  defi- 
nite creed,  as  a  middle  stage  between  the  natural  begin- 
ning of  religious  feeling  and  its  end  in  philosophical 
culture.  Only  when  a  man  has  lived  through  the  en- 
tire range  of  a  one-sided  phase — through  the  crudeness 
of  such  a  concrete  individualizing  of  religion,  and  has 
come  to  recognize  the  universal  nature  of  religion  in  a 


178  THE  SPECIAL  ELEMENTS  OF  EDUCATION. 

special  form  of  it  which  excludes  other  forms — only 
when  the  spirit  of  a  church  has  taken  him  into  its  num- 
ber, is  he  ripe  to  criticise  religion  in  a  conciliatory 
spirit,  because  he  has  then  gained  a  religious  character 
through  that  historical  experience.  The  self-compre- 
hending universality  must  have  such  a  solid  basis  as  this 
in  the  career  of  the  man ;  it  can  never  form  the  begin- 
ning of  one's  culture,  but  it  may  constitute  the  end 
which  turns  back  again  to  the  beginning.  Most  men 
remain  at  the  historical  standpoint.  The  religion  of 
reason,  as  that  of  the  minority,  constitutes  in  the  differ- 
ent religions  the  invisible  church,  which  seeks  by  pro- 
gressive reform  to  purify  these  religions  from  supersti- 
tion and  unbelief.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  state,  by  making 
all  churches  equal  in  the  sight  of  the  law,  to  guard  re- 
ligion from  the  temptation  of  impure  motives,  and, 
through  the  granting  of  such  freedom  to  religious  indi- 
viduality, to  help  forward  the  unity  of  a  rational  insight 
into  religion  which  is  distinct  from  the  religious  feeling 
only  in  its  form,  not  in  its  content.  Not  a  philosopher, 
but  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  freed  the  world  from  all  selfish- 
ness and  all  bondage. 

[These  three  phases  in  the  absolute  religious  process  are  essen- 
tial to  complete  religious  experience.  Certainly  the  first  and 
second  forms  are  indispensable — the  stage  of  religious  emotion 
and  the  stage  of  membership  in  a  denominational  body.  The 
third  stage,  that  of  membership  in  the  invisible  church,  has  no 
meaning  to  those  who  have  not  entered  the  visible  church  in 
some  one  of  its  communions.] 

§  174.  With  this  highest  theoretical  and  practical 
emancipation,  the  general  work  of  education  ends.  It 
remains  now  to  be  shown  how  the  general  idea  of  edu- 
cation shapes  its  special  elements  into  their  appropriate 


EDUCATION   OF  THE  WILL.  179 

forms.  From  the  nature  of  education,  which  concerns 
itself  with  man  in  his  entirety,  this  exposition  belongs 
partly  to  the  history  of  culture  in  general,  partly  to  the 
history  of  religion,  partly  to  the  philosophy  of  history. 
The  pedagogical  element  in  it  always  lies  in  the  ideal 
which  the  spirit  of  a  nation  or  of  an  age  creates  for  it- 
self, and  which  it  seeks  to  realize  in  its  youth. 

[With  religious  education,  which  unites  theoretical  and  prac- 
tical education  by  offering  to  the  intellect  the  view  of  the  first 
principle  of  the  universe,  and  by  offering  to  the  will  a  revelation 
of  the  divine  purpose  in  creation  as  the  ultimate  guide  for  all 
practical  action,  education  ends.  The  science  of  education,  hav- 
ing expounded  these  departments,  has  now  left  for  it  only  the 
survey  of  the  historical  systems  that  have  prevailed  in  the 
world.] 


THIRD    PART. 

PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 


THIRD    PART. 

PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 


INTKODTJCTIOK 

HISTORICAL    SYSTEMS    OF   EDUCATION. 

§  175.  THE  general  idea  of  education  is  individual- 
ized, in  its  realization  in  human  history,  according  to  its 
elements,  into  specific  ideas  which  we  call  pedagogical 
principles.  The  number  of  these  principles  is  not  un- 
limited, but  the  idea  of  education  admits  only  a  certain 
definite  number.  If  we  deduce  them,  therefore,  we 
deduce  at  the  same  time  the  history  of  pedagogics, 
which  can  from  its  very  nature  do  nothing  else  than 
realize  the  possibilities  involved  in  the  idea  of  educa- 
tion. Such  a  deduction  may  be  called  an  a  priori  con- 
struction of  history,  but  it  differs  from  what  is  gener- 
ally denoted  by  this  term  in  not  pretending  to  deduce 
single  events  and  characters.  All  empirical  details  are 
confirmation  or  illustration  for  it,  but  it  does  not  attempt 
to  seek  this  empirical  element  a  priori. 

The  history  of  pedagogics  is  still  in  the  stage  of  infancy.  Some- 
times it  is  taken  up  into  the  sphere  of  politics ;  sometimes  into  that 
of  the  history  of  culture.  The  productions  of  some  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished writers  on  the  subject  are  now  antiquated.  [Omission 


184     PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

here  of  references  to  the  works  of  Niemeyer,  Schwarz,  Cramer,  Stral- 
sund,  Alexander  Kapp,  of  Brzoska's  and  Mager's  "  Pedagogical  Re- 
views."]   But  with  regard  to  modern  pedagogics  we  have  relatively 
very  little.    Karl  von  Raumer,*  in  1843,  began  to  publish  a  "  History 
of  Pedagogics  since  the  Time  of  the  Revival  of  Classical  Studies,"  and 
has  accomplished  much  of  value  on  the  biographical  side.    But  the 
idea  of  the  general  connection  and  dependence  of  the  several  phases 
has  not  received  much  attention,  and  since  the  time  of  Pestalozzi 
books  have  assumed  the  character  of  biographical  confessions.  Strum- 
pell,  in  1843,  collected  and  systematized  the  educational  material 
found  in  the  writings  of  the  philosophers  Kant,  Fichte,  and  Herbart. 
[The  exposition  of  the  historical  systems  that  have  prevailed 
in  the  world  is  derived  partly  from  the  history  of  culture,  partly 
from  the  history  of  religion,  and  partly  from  the  philosophy  of 
history.    The  educational  element  in  a  nation  must  always  be 
interpreted  through  the  ideal  which  the  spirit  of  a  nation  or  an 
age  creates  for  itself  and  seeks  to  realize  in  its  youth. 

Each  historical  system  has  a  definite  idea  or  principle  lying  at 
its  basis.  It  may  seem  at  first  as  though  there  might  be  an  in- 
definite number  of  these  principles,  but  such  is  not  the  fact. 
Human  nature  is  a  definite  thing  as  a  reality,  and  its  ideal 
is  also  something  definite,  namely,  rational  culture.  Reason  is 
logical  and  systematic.  Hence,  the  development  of  the  human 
race  into  reason  can  give  only  such  phases  as  the  two  extremes 
and  their  combination  permit.  Man  starts  as  a  natural  being 
and  becomes  a  spiritual  being.  He  begins  in  thralldom  to  time 
and  space,  and  develops  self-determination  and  freedom  in  his 
intellect  and  will.  Man's  first  phase  of  growth  into  civilization 
is  characterized  by  absolute  authority  correlated  with  absolute 
subjection.  The  institutions  which  help  him  to  free  himself 
from  nature  (family,  civil  society,  state,  church)  assume  an  atti- 
tude of  absolute  authority  toward  the  individual.  That  is  to 
say,  the  first  stage  of  the  development  of  civilization  sets  up  its 
institutions  of  civilization  in  the  form  of  nature.  As  civiliza- 

*  The  larger  portion  of  this  excellent  work  of  Karl  von  Raumer  has 
been  translated  into  English,  and  published  under  separate  articles  in  the 
volumes  of  Dr.  Henry  Barnard's  "American  Journal  of  Education."  The 
thirty  volumes  of  Dr.  Barnard's  work  constitute  an  encyclopedia  of  edu- 
cation.—ED. 


HISTORICAL   SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION.  185 

tion  is  the  process  of  mediation  between  nature  and  spirit,  three 
general  .phases  only  are  possible  in  the  history  of  civilization : 
(a)  The  phase  in  which  institutions  take  on  the  form  of  nature, 
and  crush  out  all  individual  freedom;  (b)  the  phase  in  which 
pure  spirit  or  the  personal  God  governs  his  people  directly  as 
a  chosen  people,  and  sets  them  free  from  all  forms  of  Nature- 
worship;  (c)  the  phase  in  which  man  himself  enters  into  the 
positive  individual  freedom  of  spirit.  In  §  177,  Rosenkranz 
names  three  phases:  (a)  National  Education;  (b)  Theocratic 
Education ;  (c)  Human  Education.  There  is  in  this  classifica- 
tion an  a  priori  element  which  necessitates  three  and  only  three 
general  forms  (the  subdivisions  of  these  three  forms  are,  of 
course,  indefinitely  manifold).  Experience  alone  discovers  for 
us  the  nations  and  people  who  may  be  classified  under  these 
three  classes.] 

§  176.  Man  is  educated  by  man  for  humanity.  This 
is  the  fundamental  idea  of  all  education.  But,  in  the 
shaping  of  this  science,  we  can  not  begin  with  the  idea 
of  humanity  as  such,  but  only  with  the  natural  form  in 
which  it  primarily  manifests  itself— that  of  the  people 
or  nation.  But  the  naturalness  of  this  principle  disap- 
pears in  the  course  of  its  development,  since  nations  act 
and  react  upon  each  other,  and  begin  gradually  to  per- 
ceive the  unity  of  their  common  humanity.  But  the 
freedom  of  spiritual  being  from  nature  makes  its  ap- 
pearance explicitly  in  the  transcendent  form  of  abstract 
theistic  religion,  in  which  God  is  recognized  as  the  ruler 
over  Nature,  which  on  the  other  hand  is  conceived  as 
merely  dependent ;  and  his  chosen  people  plant  the  root 
of  their  nationality  no  longer  in  the  earth,  but  in  this 
belief.  The  unity  of  the  abstractly  natural  and  ab- 
stractly spiritual  determinateness  is  the  concrete  unity 
of  the  spirit  with  nature,  in  which  it  recognizes  nature 
as  its  necessary  organ,  and  itself  as  in  its  nature  divine. 
Spirit  in  this  stage,  as  the  internal  presupposition  of  the 


186  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

two  previously  named,  takes  up  into  itself  on  one  hand 
the  phase  of  nationality,  since  this  is  the  form  of  the 
immediate  individualization  (of  modern  civilization); 
but  it  no  longer  distinguishes  between  nations  as  if  they 
were  abstractly  severed  the  one  from  the  other,  as  the 
Greeks  shut  out  all  other  nations  under  the  name  of 
barbarians.  It  also  takes  up  into  itself  the  phase  of 
spirituality,  since  it  knows  itself  as  spirit,  and  knows  it- 
self to  be  free  from  nature,  and  yet  it  does  not  estrange 
itself  from  the  world  as  the  Jews  did  in  their  repre- 
sentation of  pure  spirit,  to  whom  nature  seemed  to  be 
only  the  work  of  divine  caprice.  Humanity  knows  na- 
ture as  its  own,  because  it  knows  the  divine  spirit  and 
its  creative  energy  manifesting  itself  in  nature  and  his- 
tory, as  also  the  essence  of  its  own  spirit.  Education 
can  be  complete  only  with  Christianity  as  the  religion 
of  humanity. 

[Man  is  educated  by  man  for  humanity,  i.  e.,  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  all  the  possibilities  of  humanity  as  a  whole  in  each  in- 
dividual ;  education  of  the  youth  shall  give  him  the  results  of 
all  human  experience.  But  humanity  in  its  complete  unfolding 
is  not  to  be  found  at  the  beginning  of  history.  The  totality  of 
a  people  or  nation  is  the  highest  realization  of  humanity  that 
can  be  found  at  first  (countless  ages  pass  away  before  science, 
art,  philosophy,  and  theology  come  to  exist).  "  The  naturalness 
of  this  principle,"  i.  e.,  the  bond  that  unites  a  people,  is  a  natural 
and  not  an  artificial  bond ;  it  does  not  depend  on  leagues  and 
treaties,  but  on  community  of  descent  and  consequent  identical 
race-peculiarities,  common  language,  manners  and  customs,  and 
traditions.  Each  individual  of  a  people  finds  himself  living  in 
this  identity  with  his  people  just  as  he  finds  himself  living  in 
identity  with  a  family.  The  family  identity  (called  "  identity  " 
because  it  is  a  common  life,  the  same  for  each,  consisting  of 
mutual  relations  and  common  possessions  in  which  each  owns 
an  undivided  share)  is  a  "  natural "  one  in  the  fact  that  it,  too, 
arises  from  the  laws  of  nature  and  not  from  free  choice.  The 


HISTORICAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION.  187 

individual,  e.  g.,  can  not  choose  his  ancestry.  This  natural 
unity  of  people  gradually  gives  place  to  the  recognition  of  com- 
mon humanity  and  an  observance  of  humane  duties  toward  all 
men. 

The  spiritual  nature  of  man  (his  will,  intellect,  and  heart)  is 
opposed  to  his  animal  nature.  Matter  is  exclusive ;  animal 
gratifications  are  exclusive  and  selfish;  spiritual  life  is  par- 
ticipation; the  intellect  and  the  moral  will  develop  through 
sharing  all  acquisitions  with  others.  Wisdom  is  a  product  of 
the  race,  and  not  of  one  individual  exclusively ;  the  greater  the 
number  who  participate  in  wisdom,  the  better  for  all.  The 
second  phase  of  the  history  of  culture  is  the  one  in  which  God  is 
revealed  as  a  pure  spiritual  being,  not  identical  with  the  sun  or 
moon  or  any  part  of  nature,  or  indeed  with  the  whole  of  nature. 
In  the  contemplation  of  this  pure  ideal  man  begins  to  see  that 
his  own  destiny  is  something  transcending  nature.  "The 
chosen  people  plant  the  root  of  their  nationality "  not  in  any 
particular  territory  or  feature  of  nature,  but  in  their  faith  in 
Jehovah.  The  Jewish  nationality  is  a  sort  of  pivot  on  which 
the  history  of  the  world  turns  from  the  thralldom  of  nature  to 
the  freedom  of  spirit.  Nevertheless,  spirit  is  not  free  when  it 
simply  renounces  nature  and  regards  it  as  a  work  of  divine  ca- 
price. It  must  conquer  nature  and  use  it  for  spiritual  purposes 
or  rational  ends  before  it  is  free  in  the  highest  sense.  Concrete 
freedom  is  therefore  said  to  be  a  unity  of  spirit  and  nature,  but 
it  is  a  unity  in  which  nature  is  subordinated  to  an  instrument, 
and  spirit  is  exalted  to  the  end  and  aim  of  creation.  In  this  it 
"  takes  up  into  itself  the  phase  of  nationality,"  or,  in  other 
words,  modern  civilization  retains  the  form  of  the  nation  or  of 
separate  peoples,  but  at  the  same  time  it  repudiates  more  and 
more  the  jealousy  and  hatred  that  was  wont  to  be  directed  to 
outside  nations.  It  also  "takes  up  into  itself  the  phase  of 
spirituality,"  i.  e.,  besides  retaining  nationality,  modern  civiliza- 
tion also  worships  God  as  a  person,  and  places  on  the  summit 
the  ideal  of  the  divine-human.  By  this  it  "  knows  itself  to  be 
free  from  nature,"  i.  e.,  to  be  immortal  and  able  to  survive 
death  and  live  without  this  world.  "  Humanity  knows  nature 
as  its  own  "  because  it  recognizes  its  right  to  use  it  for  its  own 
advantage ;  it  sees  nature  as  created  by  Absolute  Reason  for  the 
behoof  of  reasonable  creatures  made  in  his  image.  Hence  edu- 
19 


188      PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

cation  becomes  "complete  wi-th  Christianity  as  the  religion  of 
humanity."] 

§  177.  We  have  thus  three  different  systems  of  edu- 
cation :  (1)  the  National ;  (2)  the  Theocratic ;  and  (3)  the 
Humanitarian.  The  first  works  after  the  manner  of  na- 
ture, since  it  educates  the  individual  as  a  type  of  his 
race.  The  original  nationality  endeavors  sharply  to  dis- 
tinguish itself  from  others,  and  to  impress  on  each  per- 
son the  stamp  of  its  uniform  type.  One  individual  is 
like  every  other,  or  at  least  should  be  so.  The  second 
system  in  its  manner  of  manifestation  is  identical  with 
the  first.  It  even  marks  the  national  difference  more 
emphatically ;  but  the  ground  of  the  uniformity  of  the 
individuals  is  with  it  not  merely  the  natural  element  in 
common,  but  the  common  interest  is  the  result  of  the 
spiritual  unity,  which  neglects  nature,  and  concentrates 
its  whole  attention  upon  the  events  of  its  own  history ; 
satisfied  with  no  present,  it  remains  in  continual  self- 
alienation,  looking  back  to  its  past,  or  forward  to  its  fu- 
ture. The  theocratic  system  educates  the  individual  as 
the  servant  of  God.  He  is  the  true  Jew  only  in  so 
far  as  he  is  this ;  the  genealogical  identity  with  father 
Abraham  is  a  condition  but  not  the  principle  of  the 
nationality.  The  third  system  emancipates  the  indi- 
vidual, and  elevates  him  to  the  enjoyment  of  freedom 
as  his  essence ;  educates  him  within  national  limits  which 
no  longer  separate  but  unite ;  and,  in  the  consciousness 
that  each,  without  any  kind  of  mediation,  has  a  direct 
relation  to  God,  makes  of  him  a  man  who  knows  him- 
self to  be  a  member  of  the  spiritual  world  of  humanity. 
We  can  have  no  fourth  system  beyond  this.  From  the 
side  of  the  state-pedagogics  we  might  characterize  these 


HISTORICAL  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION.  189 

systems  as  that  of  the  nation-state,  the  God-state,  and 
the  humanity-state.  From  the  time  of  the  establishment 
of  the  last,  no  one  nation  can  attain  to  any  sovereignty 
over  the  others.  By  means  of  the  world-religion  of 
Christianity,  the  education  of  nations  has  come  to  the 
point  of  taking,  for  its  ideal,  man  as  determining  him- 
self according  to  the  demands  of  reason. 

[Three  different  systems  of  education  founded  on  the  stages  of 
civilization :  (a)  National ;  (b)  Theocratic  ;  (c)  Humanitarian — 
"humanitarian"  not  used  here  in  a  sentimental  sense;  it  ex- 
presses rather  the  missionary  sense — love  for  the  souls  of  men  of 
whatever  race  or  land ;  the  care  of  the  civilization  for  its  un- 
fortunate, the  care  of  the  highest  for  the  lowest.  It  is  a  civil- 
ization that  interests  itself  in  all  nature  as  a  revelation  of  the 
divine,  and  hence  specializes  its  work  in  the  several  sciences,  in- 
vestigating the  humblest  orders  of  nature  with  as  much  pains- 
taking care  as  the  mightiest. 

The  National  system  works  "  after  the  manner  of  nature,  since 
it  educates  the  individual  as  a  type  of  his  race  " ;  education  among 
the  people  of  Asia  does  not  attempt  to  develop  individualism, 
but  only  to  repress  individuality  and  produce  perfect  conformity 
to  the  established  type  of  behavior,  just  as  Nature  compels  new 
acorns  to  be  like  the  old  ones.  Species  is  tyrannical  in  nature, 
allowing  only  the  slightest  of  variations  from  the  type.  But  in 
the  highest  civilization  individuality  is  cherished  to  such  a  degree 
that  social  caste,  intellectual  modes  of  thought,  habits  of  behavior, 
and  vocation  may  be  completely  varied  in  the  second  generation. 
In  the  second  system  (the  Theocratic)  the  uniformity  of  indi- 
viduals is  based  on  its  spiritual  unity,  a  continual  straining  of 
the  mind  after  what  is  not  present — a  past  to  which  it  looks 
back  with  longing  as  the  days  of  patriarchal  ancestors  who  lived 
in  close  personal  favor  with  Jehovah,  or  a  future  in  which  it  ex- 
pects peace  and  plenty,  and  the  renewal  of  divine  favor.  The 
Jewish  child  must  be  educated  as  a  servant  of  God.  The  race 
principle,  based  as  it  is  on  nature,  yields  in  the  case  of  the  He- 
brews to  the  purely  spiritual  principle  of  service  of  Jehovah. 
If  one  serves  Jehovah,  it  is  not  necessary  that  he  be  descended 
from  Abraham. 


190  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  third  system  has  for  its  ideal  the  brotherhood  of  all  men, 
and  continually  impels  the  nations  toward  commerce  in  articles 
of  use  and  beauty,  necessity  and  luxury,  as  well  as  the  inter- 
change of  ideas  and  the  mutual  toleration  of  differences. 

There  can  be  no  fourth  system  beyond  this,  because  this  com- 
pletely mediates  the  particular  with  the  universal,  holding  as  its 
end  and  aim  the  perfect  collection  of  all  that  the  individual  pro- 
duces into  the  market  of  the  world,  material  and  spiritual,  and 
the  perfect  distribution  of  all  thence  again  to  the  individual,  so 
that  each  helps  all  and  all  help  each.  Each  person  gives  his 
mite  to  the  world ;  each  person  receives  from  the  world  infinitely 
more  than  he  gave,  not  in  quantity  but  in  quality,  enriched  by 
variety  and  all  manner  of  precious  attributes.  For  each  locality 
has  a  limited  number  of  precious  material  productions,  and  like- 
wise a  few  spiritual  gifts ;  by  world-commerce  each  locality  is 
made  to  abound  in  the  desirable  productions  of  all  climes,  and 
the  spiritual  gifts  of  all  places  and  all  times  are  brought  to  every 
human  being.  This  is  achieved  progressively  by  the  inspiration 
pf  Christianity  as  it  gradually  regenerates  society.] 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   SYSTEM   OF   NATIONAL    EDUCATION. 

§  178.  THE  National  is  the  primitive  system  of  edu- 
cation, since  the  family  is  the  organic  starting-point  of 
all  education,  and  it  grows  into  the  basis  of  nationality. 

Education  has  always  in  view  the  preparation  of  youth  for  life 
in  institutions.  Even  inorganic  peoples,  those  in  a  state  of  nature — 
the  so-called  savage  races — are  possessed  of  something  more  than  u, 
mere  physical  education ;  for,  though  they  set  much  value  upon 
gymnastic  and  warlike  practices,  and  give  much  time  to  them,  they 
inculcate  also  respect  for  parents,  for  the  aged,  and  for  the  decrees 
of  the  community.  Education  with  them  is  essentially  family  train- 
ing, and  its  object  is  to  cultivate  in  children  a  natural  love  and  rev- 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  NATIONAL  EDUCATION     191 

erence  for  the  elders  and  those  in  authority.  That  the  finer  forms  to 
which  we  are  accustomed  are  wanting  must  not  be  forgotten.  Be- 
sides, education  among  all  these  people  of  nature  is  very  simple  and 
much  the  same,  though  great  differences  in  its  administration  may 
exist,  arising  from  differences  of  geographical  situation  or  race  char- 
acteristics. 

[The  National  is  the  primitive  system  of  education  because  it 
is  the  education  of  the  family,  which  is  the  germ  out  of  which 
grows  civilization.  The  education  of  the  family  lays  chief  stress 
on  what  Rosenkranz  calls  "  naturliche  Pietat"  i.  e.,  love  and 
reverence  for  parents  and  blood-relatives,  and  obedience  to  eld- 
ers— what  the  Romans  called  pietas,  the  affection  and  respect 
due  to  parents  and  departed  ancestors ;  it  expressed  the  piety  of 
ancestor-worship,  which  is  the  oldest  form  of  religion.  (See  Des 
Coulanges'  La  Cite  Antique.}  Rosenkranz  says:  "Education 
has  always  in  view  the  production  of  spirit  (Geisf) — Geist  being 
the  technical  term  in  Hegel's  Philosophy  for  the  social  life  of 
man  in  the  institutions  of  civilization ;  Geist  might  here  be 
translated  '  civilization,'  although  its  literal  ordinary  meaning  is 
apm/."] 

§  179.  National  education  is  divided  into  three  spe- 
cial systems :  (1)  passive,  (2)  active,  (3)  individual.  It 
begins  with  the  humble  attitude  of  an  utter  subjection 
to  nature,  and  ends  with  the  arrogance  of  an  equally 
entire  rejection  of  nature. 

[Three  systems  of  National  education :  (1)  passive  (China, 
India,  Thibet);  (2)  active  (Persia);  (3)  individual  (Greece  and 
Rome).] 

§  180.  Man  subjects  himself  at  first  to  the  natural 
authority  of  the  family;  he  obeys  unconditionally  its 
behests.  Then  he  substitutes  for  the  family,  as  he  goes 
on  in  his  culture,  the  artificial  family  of  his  caste,  to 
whose  rules  he  again  unconditionally  yields.  To  relieve 
himself  from  this  artificiality  and  this  tyranny,  at  last 
he  breaks  away  from  the  family  and  from  the  training 
that  prepares  him  for  family  and  caste.  He  flees  from 


192  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

both,  and,  becoming  a  monk,  lie  again  subjects  himself  to 
the  tyranny  of  his  order.  A  monk  presents  to  us  only 
a  specimen  of  his  species — all  are  alike. 

[(1)  The  passive,  (a)  Man  begins  in  the  humble  attitude  of 
subjection  to  Nature  as  it  is  found  in  the  family :  he  obeys  the 
authorities  of  the  family  implicitly.  The  Chinese  state  is  founded 
on  patriarchal  rule,  (b)  The  Indian  civilization  substitutes  caste 
for  family,  and  obeys  its  rules,  (c)  Then  he  revolts  against  the 
tyranny  of  caste,  and  subjects  himself  to  a  new  tyranny,  the  rules 
of  the  cloister — the  Buddhist  civilization  in  its  purest  form. 
These  phases  of  civilization  will  be  treated  in  detail  further  on.] 

§  181.  This  absolute  abstraction  from  nature  and 
from  education  that  fits  one  for  life  in  family  and  caste, 
this  quietism  of  spiritual  isolation,  is  the  ultimate  result 
of  the  passive  system.  In  opposition  to  this,  the  active 
system  seeks  the  positive  vanquishing  of  natural  re- 
straints. Its  people  are  courageous.  They  attack  other 
nations  in  order  to  rule  over  them  as  conquerors.  They 
live  for  the  continuation  of  their  life  after  death,  and 
for  this  purpose  build  for  themselves  tombs  of  granite. 
They  brave  the  dangers  of  the  sea.  The  unvaried  prose 
of  the  patriarchal  state,  the  fantastic  dreamy  reveries  of 
the  caste-state,  the  ascetic  self-renunciation  of  the  cloister- 
state,  yield  gradually  to  the  recognition  of  the  world  of 
reality,  and  the  fundamental  principle  of  Persian  edu- 
cation consisted  in  the  inculcation  of  veracity. 

[The  passive  system  (1)  results  in  quietism  or  the  renunciation 
of  activity  and  the  adoption  of  a  life  of  seclusion  and  meditation. 
We  shall  see  (§  184)  the  ground  for  this  result :  its  view  of  the 
world  and  its  relation  to  the  Absolute  Being  explains  the  pecul- 
iarity of  its  civilization.  (2)  The  active  system  directs  itself 
against  restraints  thrust  upon  it  by  Nature,  (a)  The  Persian 
strives  to  overcome  limits  and  boundaries,  and  to  extend  his  do- 
minion over  space.  (See  the  peculiar  ground  for  this  in  his  re- 
ligion, §  195).  (b)  The  Egyptian  civilization  is  directed  toward 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  NATIONAL  EDUCATION.  193 

a  preparation  for  the  life  after  death  (see  §  199).  (c)  The  Phoe- 
nician braves  the  dangers  of  the  sea.  Note  in  §  197  the  remark- 
able thought  of  Hegel  on  the  contrast  between  the  Persians  and 
the  Hindoos  in  respect  to  the  education  in  telling  the  truth — 
"  inculcation  of  veracity."] 

§  182.  But  tlie  nationality  which  is  occupied  with 
simple,  natural  elements — other  nations,  death,  the  mys- 
tery of  the  ocean — may  revert  to  the  abstractions  of  the 
previous  stage,  which  in  education  often  takes  on  cruel 
forms — nay,  often  truly  horrible.  First,  when  spiritual 
being  begins  not  only  to  suspect  its  nature,  but  rather 
to  recognize  itself  as  the  true  essence ;  and  when  the 
God  of  Light  places  as  the  motto  on  his  temple  the 
command  to  self-knowledge,  the  natural  individuality 
becomes  free.  Neither  the  passive  nor  the  active  sys- 
tem permits  the  free  self-distinction  of  the  individual 
from  his  fellows.  In  them,  to  be  an  individuality  is  a 
betrayal  of  the  very  idea  of  their  existence,  and  even 
the  suspicion  of  such  a  thing  is  sufficient  to  destroy  ut- 
terly and  mercilessly  the  one  to  whom  it  refers.  Even 
the  solitary  individuality  of  the  despot  is  not  the  one- 
ness of  free  individuality ;  but  he  is  also  only  a  speci- 
men of  his  kind,  although  the  only  specimen.  Nation- 
ality rises  to  individuality  through  the  free  dialectic  of 
its  component  peoples,  whereby  it  dissolves  its  presup- 
position, or  the  peculiarities  that  arise  from  limitations 
by  alien  nationalities. 

[The  defects  and  limits  of  the  "active"  systems — liable  to 
revert  to  the  abstractions  of  the  passive  systems,  and  take  on 
cruel  forms  (Phoenician  Moloch-fires,  Egyptian  slavery,  Persian 
luxury,  etc.).  (3)  The  individual  system  is  far  in  advance  of  the 
passive  and  active  systems  in  the  fact  that  it  is  based  on  a  recog- 
nition of  individuality  in  the  divine,  and  hence  permits  itself  to 
develop  individuality  in  men.  Apollo,  the  god  of  light,  places 


194:  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

the  motto  "  Know  thyself  "  over  his  temple  at  Delphi,  and,  under 
the  inspiration  of  this  command,  the  Greek  people  gradually  free 
themselves  from  blind  obedience  to  custom,  and  seek  to  find  a 
necessity  in  reason  for  all  things  in  nature  and  history.  The 
later  civilization  borrows  this  from  the  Greeks,  and  also  borrows 
the  Greek  idea  of  the  beautiful.  "  The  free  dialectic  of  its  com- 
ponent peoples,"  as  in  the  Persian  wars,  gradually  wears  off,  or 
dissolves  the  national  peculiarities  of  the  peoples  around  the 
Eastern  Mediterranean,  and  develops  them  all  toward  the  prin- 
ciple of  individuality,  which  they  enter  at  the  time  of  the  Alex- 
andrian conquest.] 

§  183.  Nevertheless,  individuality  must  always  pro- 
ceed from  natural  conditions.  JEsthetically  it  seeks  na- 
ture, but  nature  in  the  form  of  living  body,  in  order,  by 
penetrating  it  with  mind,  to  make  of  it  a  work  of  art ; 
practically  it  seeks  it,  partly  to  disdain  it  in  gloomy  res- 
ignation, partly  to  enjoy  it  in  revels  of  excessive  sensu- 
ality, and  to  heighten  the  extravagance  of  its  own  in- 
ternal morbid  self-consciousness  by  cruel  or  shameless 
public  spectacles. 

The  Germans  were  not  savage  in  the  common  signification  of  this 
term.  They  were  men  each  one  of  whom  constituted  himself  will- 
ingly a  center  for  others,  or,  if  this  was  not  the  case,  renounced  them 
in  proud  self-sufficiency.  All  the  glory  and  all  the  disgrace  of  our 
history  lie  in  the  power  of  individualizing  which  is  divinely  infused 
into  our  veins.  As  a  natural  element,  if  this  be  not  controlled,  it 
degenerates  easily  into  intractableness,  into  violence.  The  Germans 
need,  therefore,  in  order  to  be  educated,  severe  discipline,  the  impo- 
sition of  difficult  tasks ;  and  for  this  reason  they  attack  such  subjects 
as  Roman  law,  Greek  philology,  Gallic  usages,  etc.,  in  order  to  work 
off  their  superfluous  strength.  The  natural  love  of  independent  in- 
dividuality which  characterized  the  German  found  its  needed  com- 
plement in  Christianity.  The  history  of  the  German  race  shows  that 
it  would  have  been  destroyed  by  this  extreme  tendency  toward  indi- 
viduality which  led  to  minute  political  divisions  and  to  weak  political 
ties.  The  German  people,  full  of  faith  in  their  own  personal  resources, 
ventured  forth  upon  the  sea,  and  managed  their  ships  as  skillful 
horsemen  their  chargers. 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  PASSIVE   EDUCATION".  195 

[Individuality,  however,  must  always  have  a  natural  basis,  for 
its  differences  will  not  be  found  in  the  common  rational  endow- 
ment of  intellect  and  will.  Hence  it  happens  that  we  find  the 
first  nation  that  sets  up  individuality  as  its  principle  seeking  it 
in  the  form  of  the  beautiful  as  it  shines  through  physical  nature, 
especially  in  the  human  body.  The  second  nation,  the  Roman, 
seeks  individuality  practically  for  epicurean  enjoyment  and 
sensuality,  or  for  Stoic  renunciation,  setting  up  its  natural  in- 
dividual self  as  a  target  for  the  universe.  (These  peculiarities 
will  be  explained  in  detail  in  g§  203-225.)  The  German  "  ab- 
stract individualism "  (treated  in  §  226),  which  is  that  of  the 
love  of  isolated  personal  freedom,  needs  severe  discipline  (such 
as  feudal  vassalage)  to  educate  it  into  the  necessary  feeling  of 
dependence  on  society.] 


CHAPTER  II. 

FIRST   GKOUP — THE   SYSTEM   OF   PASSIVE   EDUCATION. 

§  184.  ALL  education  desires  to  free  man  from  his 
finitude,  to  make  him  ethical,  to  unite  him  with  God. 
It  begins,  therefore,  with  a  negative  relation  to  natural 
conditions,  limits,  and  restraints,  but  at  once  falls  into  a 
contradiction  of  its  aim,  by  converting  this  opposition 
to  nature  into  a  natural  necessity.  Spirit  (that  is  to  say, 
man  acting  in  institutions)  subjects  the  individual  (1)  to 
the  rule  of  the  family  as  the  institution  that  is  the  closest 
approximation  of  nature ;  (2)  to  the  rule  of  the  caste 
as  to  a  principle  in  itself  spiritual,  mediated  through 
the  division  of  labor,  which  it  nevertheless,  through  the 
principle  of  hereditary  descent,  joins  again  to  the  fam- 
ily ;  (3)  to  the  abstract  self-determination  of  the  monk- 
ish quietism,  which  turns  itself  away  as  well  from  the 


196  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

family  as  from  work,  and  makes  this  flight  from  nature 
and  human  society,  this  absolute  passivity,  his  educa- 
tional ideal. 

We  shall  not  here  enter  into  the  details  of  these  systems,  but 
simply  endeavor  to  make  clear  their  distinctions  and  remove  the 
vagueness  which  is  generally  found  in  the  descriptions  of  them 
abounding  in  educational  works,  which  employ  the  terms  "  hierarch- 
ical and  theocratical  education  "  without  historical  accuracy. 

[The  rational  ground  for  the  system  of  "  passive  education." 
It  sets  out  to  free  man  from  thralldom  to  Nature,  and  hence  as- 
sumes a  "  negative  relation  "  toward  "  natural  conditions,"  i.  e., 
it  refuses  to  permit  the  individual  to  give  free  rein  to  his  animal 
impulses,  but  constrains  him  to  obey  the  rules  and  regulations 
ordained  for  the  establishment  and  preservation  of  institutions. 
First,  the  institution  of  the  family  is  set  up  as  the  supreme  ob- 
ject of  life  in  China.  Secondly,  the  division  of  labor  (the  voca- 
tions of  life)  is  made  the  basis  of  caste,  which  is  the  chief  con- 
cern of  the  Hindoo.  Then  the  renunciation  of  all  concrete  life 
for  the  sake  of  monastic  institutions  is  the  requirement  of  the 
third  species  of  "  passive  education,"  as  found  in  Central  Asia, 
and  more  or  less  in  Ceylon  and  Farther  India.] 

I.  Family  Education. 

§  185.  The  family  is  the  organic  starting-point  of  all 
education.  The  nation  looks  upon  itself  as  a  family. 
Among  all  uncivilized  people  education  is  family  edu- 
cation, though  they  are  not  conscious  of  its  necessity. 
Identical  in  principle  with  these  people,  but  distin- 
guished from  them  through  the  fact  that  it  is  conscious 
of  it,  the  Chinese  nation,  in  its  laws,  regulations,  and 
customs,  has  established  the  family  as  the  absolute  basis 
of  its  life,  and  the  only  principle  of  its  education. 

[The  "  organic  starting-point  of  all  education  "  is  the  family, 
that  is  to  say,  the  family  is  the  institution  that  most  resembles 
a  product  of  Nature ;  it  arises  through  the  natural  relations  of 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  PASSIVE 

sex  and  parentage  on  the  one  hand,  and  through  the  necessary 
ethical  laws  that  perfect  and  secure  these  natural  relations  on 
the  other  hand.  The  first  form  of  the  nation  is  a  direct  out- 
growth of  the  family.  The  tribe  is  patriarchal  in  its  organiza- 
tion. The  first  collection  of  tribes  into  a  nation  retains  the  same 
form.  The  Chinese  nation  (437,000,000  of  people !)  is  a  vast  fam- 
ily of  families.  Mere  tribes  can  not  be  civilized  because  they 
have  to  devote  their  entire  attention  to  protecting  their  narrow 
borders  from  neighboring  tribes.  When  these  tribes  are  united 
into  a  great  nation  the  border-land  recedes,  and  all  classes  of 
people  may  devote  themselves  to  productive  industry.] 

§  186.  The  natural  element  of  the  family  is  found  in 
marriage  and  kinship;  the  spiritual  element,  in  love. 
We  may  call  the  nature  of  family  feeling,  which  is  the 
immediate  unity  of  both  elements,  by  the  Latin  name 
of  pietas.  In  so  far  as  this  appears  not  merely  as  a  sub- 
stantial feeling,  but  at  the  same  time  as  conscious  rule  of 
action,  there  arises  from  it  the  subordination  involved 
in  the  implicit  obedience  of  the  wife  to  the  husband,  of 
children  to  the  parents,  of  the  younger  children  to  the 
elder.  In  this  obedience  man  first  renounces  his  will- 
fulness and  his  natural  selfishness ;  he  learns  to  master 
his  passions,  and  to  conduct  himself  with  deferential 
gentleness. 

When  the  principle  that  governs  the  family  is  transferred  to  po- 
litical relations,  there  arises  the  tyranny  of  the  Chinese  state,  which 
can  not  be  fully  treated  here.  We  find  everywhere  in  it  an  analogi- 
cal relation  to  that  of  parents  and  children.  In  China  the  ruler  is 
the  father  and  mother  of  the  people ;  the  civil  officers  are  represent- 
atives of  a  paternal  authority,  etc.  It  follows  that  in  school  the  chil- 
dren will  be  ranked  according  to  their  age.  The  authority  of  parents 
over  children  is  absolute,  but  its  exercise  is  in  point  of  fact  very  mild. 
The  abandonment  of  daughters  by  the  poorest  classes  in  the  great 
cities  is  no  instance  to  the  contrary,  for  the  government  rears  the 
children  in  foundling  asylums,  where  they  are  cared  for  by  nurses 
appointed  by  the  state. 


198  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

[The  family  has  a  natural  element  and  a  spiritual  element, 
(a)  kinship  by  marriage  and  parentage :  (b)  love ;  (c)  pietas,  or 
affectionate  loyalty  to  one's  relatives  is  the  unity  of  love  and 
kinship.  Obedience  and  providential  care  are  the  mutual  duties 
arising  out  of  the  relation  of  subordination  within  the  family.] 

§  187.  These  relations  which  are  conditioned  by  na- 
ture take  on  the  external  shape  of  a  definite  ceremonial, 
the  learning  of  which  is  a  chief  element  of  education, 
In  conformity  with  the  naturalness  of  the  pervading 
principle  all  crimes  against  it  are  punished  by  whipping 
with  the  rod,  which,  however,  does  not  entail  dishonor. 
In  order  to  lead  man  to  self-control  and  to  obedience  to 
those  who  are  naturally  set  over  him,  education  devel- 
ops an  endless  number  of  fragmentary  maxims  to  keep 
his  attention  ever  watchful  over  himself,  and  his  be- 
havior always  fenced  in  by  a  code  of  prescriptions. 

We  find  in  such  moral  sentences  the  substance  of  what  is  called, 
in  China,  philosophy. 

[The  family  preserves  itself  by  a  code  of  observances  con- 
stituting a  ceremonial  or  system  of  etiquette  which  forms  the 
chief  part  of  education.  How  to  behave,  is  the  important  ques- 
tion. For  details  regarding  the  rules  of  etiquette  in  China,  see 
Hegel's  "Philosophy  of  History."  Five  mutual  duties  named 
.  in  the  Shu-King  as  fundamental,  (1)  between  the  emperor  and 
his  people ;  (2)  between  parents  and  children ;  (3)  between  elder 
and  younger  brothers;  (4)  between  husband  and  wife;  (5)  be- 
tween friend  and  friend.  "  The  son  may  not  accost  the  father 
when  he  comes  into  the  room ;  he  must  seem  to  contract  himself 
to  nothing  at  the  side  of  the  door,  and  may  not  leave  the  room 
without  his  father's  permission."  The  same  obedience  must  be 
shown  to  the  elder  brother.  The  son  does  not  receive  honor  for 
his  meritorious  deeds ;  they  are  attributed  to  his  father.  The 
school  flourishes  there  because  it  is  the  road  to  all  preferment  in 
the  state.  The  Chinese  alphabet  has  a  separate  sign  for  each 
word,  and  has  to  be  mastered  by  an  enormous  effort  of  the 
memory — ten  thousand  of  these  characters  being  necessary  for 
graduating  as  a  scribe.  The  primary  reading-books  are  filled 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  PASSIVE  EDUCATION.  199 

with  maxims  relating  to  etiquette  and  behavior,  and  have  to  be 
memorized,  words,  characters,  and  all.  Strict  examinations  are 
held  to  sift  out  the  incompetent  and  admit  the  competent  to  a 
higher  course  of  study.  The  third  grade  of  examination  is  held 
by  the  chancellor  of  the  province  twice  in  three  years,  and  suc- 
cessful candidates  receive  the  degree  of  Blooming  Talent  (B.  T., 
instead  of  B.  A.  /),  and  are  qualified  for  primary  teachers,  lawyers, 
notaries  public,  or  physicians.  The  fourth  examination  is  held 
at  the  capital  of  the  province  and  under  the  direction  of  two 
imperial  examiners  sent  from  Pekin.  In  some  instances  as 
many  as  twenty  thousand  "  blooming  talents  "  attend  this  ex- 
amination, but  only  one  in  a  hundred  of  the  candidates  is  suc- 
cessful in  obtaining  the  degree  of  "  Licentiate."  The  licentiates 
may  enter  the  fifth  and  highest  examination  held  in  the  Im- 
perial Palace  at  Pekin,  and  if  they  pass  are  entitled  at  once  to 
membership  in  the  Imperial  Academy  and  a  salary  for  life. 
This  academy  furnishes  committees  of  counsel  to  whom  the 
emperor  refers  all  difficult  matters  for  consideration  and  report. 
These  five  sifting  examinations  have  at  last  obtained  as  net 
result  the  men  best  fitted  of  all  for  carrying  on  the  Chinese 
government  in  the  prescribed  path,  for  they  have  had  not 
only  to  learn  by  heart  the  five  classics  of  Confucius,  filled  with 
maxims  of  family  piety  and  patriarchal  etiquette,  but  they  have 
had  to  prove  in  the  final  examination  that  they  understand  and 
are  able  to  defend  the  doctrines  on  which  the  government  is 
founded.  In  the  first  and  second  examinations  only  verbal 
memory  is  tested  and  no  insight  required.  The  minute  details 
of  Chinese  education  are  of  importance  to  us  as  proving  clearly 
the  function  of  the  exclusive  education  of  the  memory.  Con- 
servative people  without  aspiration  and  firmly  bound  to  the 
established  order  of  things  can  be  produced  without  fail  by 
schools  that  lay  great  stress  on  verbal  memory  (e.  g.,  "  learning  by 
heart "  the  capricious  orthography  of  the  English  spelling-book, 
historical  dates,  geographical  names,  arithmetical  tables,  etc., 
etc.).] 

§  188.  The  theoretical  education  includes  reading, 
writing — i.  e.,  painting  the  letters  with  a  brush — arith- 
metic, and  the  making  of  verses.    But  these  accomplish- 
ments are  not  looked  at  as  means  of  culture,  but  as 
20 


200  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

qualifications  for  official  position.  The  Chinese  possess 
formally  all  the  means  for  literary  culture — printing, 
libraries,  schools,  and  academies ;  but  the  extent  to 
which  these  appliances  are  used  is  not  great.  Their 
value  has  been  often  overrated  because  of  their  external 
resemblance  to  those  found  among  us. 

[The  effort  requisite  to  learn  the  Chinese  alphabet  is  sufficient 
to  commit  to  memory  all  the  Chinese  classics.  Hence,  the  library 
is  not  so  important  in  that  country  as  in  Europe  and  America, 
where  one  may  learn  to  read  with  so  little  trouble.  Hence,  too, 
the  obstacle  in  the  way  of  original  literary  production.] 

II.  Caste  Education. 

§  189.  The  members  of  the  family,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  differ  from  each  other  in  sex  and  age,  but  this 
difference  is  entirely  immaterial  as  far  as  the  nature 
of  their  employment  goes.  In  China,  therefore,  every 
position  is  open  to  each  man ;  he  who  is  of  humblest 
birth  in  the  great  state-family  can  climb  to  the  highest 
honor.  But  the  next  step  in  the  development  of  the 
state,  as  an  institution,  is  that  on  which  the  division  of 
labor  is  made  the  principle,  and  a  new  distinction  added 
to  that  of  the  family :  each  one  shall  perfect  himself 
only  in  that  labor  which  was  allotted  to  him  as  his  own 
through  his  birth  into  a  particular  family.  This  fatal- 
ism (the  distinction  of  caste)  breaks  up  the  life,  but  in- 
creases the  social  tension,  by  the  necessary  mutual  de- 
pendence that  flows  from  the  division  of  labor;  for 
human  civilization  moves  on  the  one  hand  toward  the 
deepening  of  its  distinctions ;  on  the  other,  toward  lead- 
ing them  back  into  the  unity  which  continually  works 
against  the  natural  tendency  to  fix  human  activity  in  ruts. 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  PASSIVE  EDUCATION.  201 

[Distinction  of  caste  imposes  a  new  yoke  on  the  individual. 
The  highest  preferment  is  not  open  to  each  as  in  the  family 
state ;  in  India,  the  station  of  life  is  absolutely  determined  by 
birth.  If  born  a  Brahman,  he  may  be  a  religious  teacher,  and 
the  object  of  unbounded  reverence  on  the  part  of  the  other 
castes.  There  are  warriors  and  merchants  and  common  labor- 
ers, besides  many  mixed  castes  founded  on  intermarriages.  The 
members  of  the  lowest  castes  are  far  more  degraded  and  brutally 
treated  than  the  negro  slaves  of  the  West  India  Islands.] 

§  190.  The  chief  work  of  education  thus  consists  in 
teaching  each  one  the  rights  and  duties  of  his  caste  so 
that  he  shall  observe  their  precise  limits,  and  not  pollute 
himself  by  passing  beyond  them.  As  the  family-state 
concerns  itself  with  fortifying  the  distinctions  founded 
on  nature  by  a  far-reaching  and  vigorous  ceremonial,  so 
the  caste-state  must  do  the  same  with  the  distinctions  of 
caste.  A  painful  etiquette  becomes  more  and  more  ex- 
acting in  its  requisitions,  the  higher  the  caste,  in  order 
to  make  the  isolation  more  sharply  defined  and  more 
perceptible. 

This  feature  penetrates  all  exclusively  caste-education.  All  aris- 
tocracy exiles  itself  on  this  account  from  its  native  country,  speaks  a 
foreign  language  and  loves  its  literature,  adopts  foreign  customs, 
lives  in  foreign  countries — in  Italy,  Paris,  etc.  In  this  way  man  be- 
comes "  distinguished."  But  that  he  should  strive  thus  to  "  distin- 
guish "  himself  has  its  ultimate  ground  in  the  accident  of  his  birth, 
and  this  is  assuredly  always  the  principle  of  the  caste-state  in  which 
it  is  to  be  found  in  its  most  perfect  form.  The  castes  require  gene- 
alogical records,  which  are  of  the  greatest  importance  in  determining 
the  destiny  of  the  individual.  The  Brahman  may  strike  dead  one  of 
a  lower  caste  who  has  denied  him  by  contact,  without  becoming 
thereby  liable  to  punishment ;  he  would  be  regarded  as  criminal,  in 
fact,  if  he  neglected  to  kill  him.  Thus  it  was  formerly  with  the 
officer  who  did  not  immediately  kill  the  citizen  or  common  soldier 
who  struck  him  a  blow. 

[Education  consists  chiefly  in  teaching  the  etiquette  and  cere- 
monies proper  to  one's  caste.  To  omit  one  of  these  observances 


202      PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

is  to  become  defiled,  and  requires  a  complicated  ceremony  of 
purification.  The  Chinese  etiquette  is  very  simple  compared 
with  that  of  India :  "  The  Brahman  must  rest  on  a  particular  foot 
when  rising ;  read  the  Yedas,  each  word  separately,  or  doubling 
them  alternately,  or  forward  and  backward ;  must  not  look  at 
the  sun  when  rising  or  setting,  nor  at  its  reflection  in  the  water ; 
must  not  step  over  a  rope  at  which  a  calf  is  fastened,  nor  go 
out  when  it  rains ;  must  not  look  at  his  wife  when  she  eats,  or 
when  she  sneezes ;  must  not  step  on  ashes,  cotton-seeds,  or 
broken  crockery,"  etc.,  etc.  One  of  the  lowest  caste  may  be 
struck  dead  if  he  comes  in  the  way  of  a  Brahman ;  if  he  hears  the 
Vedas  read,  he  must  have  melted  lead  poured  into  his  ears,  etc.] 

§191.  The  East  Indian  education  is  far  deeper  and 
richer  than  the  Chinese.  Its  theoretical  instruction  also 
includes  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic ;  but  these  are 
subordinate,  as  mere  means  for  the  higher  activities  of 
poetry,  speculation,  science,  and  art.  The  practical  edu- 
cation limits  itself  strictly  by  the  lines  of  caste,  and  since 
the  caste  system  constitutes  a  whole  in  itself,  and  each 
for  its  permanence  needs  the  others,  it  can  not  forbear 
giving  utterance  suggestively  to  what  is  universally  hu- 
man in  the  soul,  in  a  multitude  of  fables  (Hitopadesa) 
and  apothegms  (sentences  of  Bartrihari),  especially  in- 
tended for  the  education  of  princes,  and  furnishing  a 
sort  of  mirror  of  the  world. 

Xenophon's  Cyropedia  is  not  Greek  but  Indian  in  its  plan. 

[The  Brahman  caste  may  be  said  to  be  devoted  to  religious  lit- 
erature and  worship.  Through  them  have  arisen  epic  and  dra- 
matic poems,  systems  of  philosophy,  science,  and  art.  The  Hito- 
padesa is  the  Indian  JEsop,  and  contains  a  multitude  of  fables 
for  the  instruction  of  the  sons  of  a  king.  They  are  ingeniously 
interwoven.  The  animals  of  one  fable  relate  other  fables.  The 
pigeon  relates  to  the  crow  the  fable  of  the  tiger  and  the  trav- 
eler ;  the  king  of  the  mice  relates  the  fable  of  the  deer,  the  jackal, 
and  the  crow ;  the  crow  relates  the  fable  of  the  blind  vulture, 
the  cat,  and  the  birds,  etc.] 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  PASSIVE  EDUCATION.  203 

III.  Monkish  Education. 

§  192.  Family  education  demands  unconditional 
obedience  toward  parents  and  toward  all  who  stand  in 
an  analogous  position.  Caste-education  demands  un- 
conditional obedience  to  the  duties  of  the  caste.  The 
family  punishes  with  the  rod ;  the  caste,  by  excommuni- 
cation, by  loss  of  honor.  The  negative  tendency  against 
nature  appears  in  both  systems  in  the  form  of  a  strict 
ceremonial,  distinguishing  between  the  differences  aris- 
ing from  nature.  The  family  as  well  as  the  caste  has 
within  it  a  fountain  of  manifold  activity,  but  it  has  also 
just  as  manifold  a  limitation  of  the  individual.  The 
impulse  toward  higher  civilization  is  forced,  therefore, 
to  turn  against  nature  in  general.  It  must  become  in- 
different to  the  family.  But  it  must  also  oppose  the 
social  order,  and  the  fixed  distinctions  of  division  of 
labor  as  necessitated  by  nature.  It  must  become  indif- 
ferent to  labor  and  the  fruits  derived  from  it.  That  it 
may  not  be  conditioned  either  by  nature  or  by  human 
civilization,  it  denies  both,  and  makes  its  action  to  con- 
sist in  producing  an  abstinence  from  all  action. 

[Monkish  education  "turns  against  nature"  altogether,  and 
does  not,  like  the  family  and  the  caste,  lay  emphasis  on  differences 
arising  from  nature  (such  as  sex,  age,  birth,  hereditary  de'scent, 
etc.).  Labor,  and  even  the  fruits  of  labor,  are  a  matter  of  in- 
difference to  it.  The  activity  of  Buddhism  is  directed  toward 
abstention  from  activity.  Here  the  passive  education  culmi- 
nates.] 

§  193.  Such  an  indifference  toward  nature  and  the 
social  order  produces  the  education  which  we  have 
called  monkish.  Those  who  perpetuate  the  race,  care 
for  food,  clothing,  and  shelter,  and  for  these  material 


204      PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

contributions,  as  the  laity,  receive  in  return  from  those 
who  live  this  contemplative  life  the  spiritual  reward  of 
participation  in  the  blessings  which  wait  upon  ascetic 
contemplation.  The  family  institution  as  well  as  the 
institution  of  human  labor  is  subordinated  to  the  abstract 
isolation  of  the  cloister,  in  which  the  individual  lives 
only  for  the  purification  of  his  soul.  All  things  are 
justified  by  this  end.  Castes  are  found  no  more ;  only 
those  are  bound  to  the  observance  of  a  special  ceremonial 
who  as  nuns  or  monks  subject  themselves  to  uncondi- 
tional obedience  to  the  rules  of  the  cloister,  these  rules 
solemnly  enjoining  on  the  negative  side  celibacy  and 
cessation  from  business,  and  on  the  positive  side  prayer 
and  performance  of  ceremonial  rites. 

[Such  a  system  requires  a  distinction  of  the  people  into  laity 
and  monks.  For  with  Buddhist  monks  alone  the  race  would 
soon  perish.  The  laity  supply  the  material  wants  of  the  monks, 
and  keep  up  the  race.  The  dreadful  oppression  of  ceremonial 
which  prevails  in  Chinese  etiquette  and  Hindoo  observance  of 
caste  is  avoided  in  Buddhism.  All  is  simplified.  There  are 
three  hundred  million  Buddhists  scattered  over  China,  Farther 
India,  Ceylon,  and  among  the  Mongolians  of  Siberia.  In  China 
Buddhism  takes  on  an  essentially  modified  form;  it  does  not 
replace  the  family  principle  as  in  Thibet.] 

§  194.  In  the  school  of  the  Chinese  Tao-tse,  and  in 
the  command  to  the  Brahman  after  he  has  established 
a  family  to  become  a  hermit,  we  find  the  transition  as 
it  actually  exists  to  the  Buddhistic  quietism  which  has 
covered  the  rocky  heights  of  Thibet  with  countless 
cloisters,  and  reared  the  people  who  are  dependent  upon 
it  into  a  child-like  amiability,  into  a  contented  repose. 
Art  and  science  have  here  no  value  in  themselves,  and 
are  regarded  only  as  ministering  to  religion.  To  be  able 
to  read,  in  order  to  mutter  the  prayers,  is  desirable, 


THE  SYSTEM   OF  PASSIVE  EDUCATION.  205 

With  the  conscious  purpose  of  the  monk  to  reduce  self 
to  nothing,  as  the  highest  good,  the  system  of  passive 
education  attains  its  highest  point.  But  civilization  can 
not  content  itself  with  this  abstract  and  dreamy  absence 
of  all  action,  though  it  demands  a  high  stage  of  cult- 
ure ;  it  has  recourse  therefore  to  action,  partly  on  the 
positive  side  to  conquer  nature,  partly  to  double  its  own 
existence  by  building  up  human  institutions.  Inspired 
with  affirmative  courage,  it  descends  triumphantly  from 
the  mountain-heights,  and  fears  secularization  no  more. 

[In  Thibet  every  father  who  has  four  sons  must  dedicate  one 
of  them  to  monastic  life.  The  supreme  object  of  life  among  the 
Buddhists  where  Lamaism  prevails — for  Lamaism  is  a  political 
form,  not  at  all  coextensive  with  Buddhism  as  a  religion — is  to 
attain  the  elevated  spiritual  condition  of  the  monastic  order. 
Failing  in  this  highest  object,  the  people  strive  to  share  in  the  di- 
vine favors  dispensed  or  obtained  by  the  priests.  The  Buddhistic 
view  of  the  world  is  in  sharp  contrast  with  the  Christian  view, 
although  its  monasticism  as  well  as  its  ceremonial  has  a  close 
external  resemblance  to  the  f orins  of  the  Catholic  Church ;  and, 
in  fact,  Lamaism  may  have  borrowed  its  ceremonial  from  East- 
ern Christians  in  the  eighth  century  or  later.  The  Buddhist 
seeks  nirvana,  or  the  absolute  repose  of  being ;  a  state  in  which 
he  is  freed  not  only  from  all  earthly  cares  and  distracting 
thoughts,  but  also  from  all  cares  and  thoughts  of  whatever 
description.  In  fact,  while  Christianity  seeks  deliverance  from 
selfishness,  Buddhism  seeks  deliverance  from  selfhood,  and  aims 
to  lose  all  consciousness,  as  the  Sankhya  doctrine  of  India,  which 
is  apparently  the  root  of  Buddhist  theology,  plainly  teaches. 
In  this  respect  the  "  passive  "  education  comes  most  strongly  into 
contrast  with  the  "  active  "  education.  The  former  seeks  to  free 
itself  from  evil  by  passively  renouncing  not  only  all  action,  but 
life  itself.  The  latter  strives  to  conquer  evil  by  action,  and  edu- 
cates to  a  life  which  helps  itself  by  helping  others.] 


206  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER  III. 

SECOND   GROUP. — THE   SYSTEM   OF   ACTIVE   EDUCATION. 

§  195.  ACTIVE  education  elevates  man  from  his  com- 
plete subjection  to  the  family,  caste,  and  asceticism,  into 
a  concrete  activity  guided  by  a  definite  aim  which  sub- 
ordinates those  institutions  into  means  of  its  own  devel- 
opment, and  grants  to  each  independence  on  condition 
of  its  perfect  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  whole.  These 
aims  are  the  military  state,  the  future  condition  after 
death,  and  industry.  There  is  always  an  element  of 
nature  present,  which  gives  occasion  to  the  activity  ;  but 
this  no  longer  appears,  like  the  family,  the  caste,  the 
egoistic  personal  seclusion  of  the  cloister,  as  immedi- 
ately dwelling  within  the  individual,  but  as  something 
outside  of  himself  which  limits  him ;  and  yet,  as  his 
destined  career  has  an  internal  relation  to  him,  is  es- 
sential to  him  and  assigns  to  him  the  object  of  his 
activity.  The  Persian  has  for  his  object  of  conquest, 
other  nations;  the  Egyptian,  death;  the  Phoenician, 
the  sea. 

[Active  education  in  contrast  to  passive  education  directs  its 
efforts  outward  with  a  view  to  accomplish  some  new  conquest. 
Passive  education  was  conservative,  and  aimed  to  crush  out  in- 
dividuality by  imposing  on  it  burdensome  codes  of  etiquette, 
ceremonies,  and  moral  order.  Active  education  has  the  opposite 
tendency.  The  Persian  strives  to  prepare  his  youth  for  military 
conquest.  The  Phoenician  educates  for  foreign  commerce,  the 
perils  of  the  sea  and  hostile  lands.  The  Egyptian  makes  this 
life  a  preparation  for  immortality,  building  gigantic  tombs,  and 
embalming  the  corporeal  hull  of  the  soul,  so  that  it  may  serve 
its  purpose  again  at  the  resurrection.] 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  ACTIVE  EDUCATION.  2Q7 

I.  Military  Education. 

§  196.  That  education  which  would  emancipate  a 
nation  from  the  passivity  of  isolation  and  one-sided  de- 
velopment must  throw  it  into  a  process  of  intercourse 
with  other  forms  of  civilization.  A  nation  does  not 
find  its  real  limits  in  its  territorial  boundaries ;  it  can 
leave  its  habitat  and  seek  a  new  and  distant  one.  Its 
true  limit  is  made  by  another  nation.  The  nation  which 
feels  its  own  genuine  substantiality  turns  itself  there- 
fore against  other  nations  in  order  to  subject  them  and 
to  reduce  them  to  the  condition  of  mere  accidents  of  it- 
self as  substance.  It  begins  a  system  of  conquest  which 
has  in  itself  no  limitations,  but  goes  from  one  nation  to 
another,  and  extends  its  course  indefinitely.  The  final 
result  of  this  attack  on  other  nations  is  that  it  combines 
them  against  it,  and  is  in  its  turn  invaded  and  conquered. 

The  early  history  of  the  Persian  is  twofold :  the  patriarchal  in 
the  high  valleys  of  Iran,  and  the  religio-hierarchical  among  the 
Medes.  We  find  under  these  circumstances  a  repetition  of  the  prin- 
cipal characteristics  of  the  Chinese,  Indian,  and  Buddhist  education ; 
even  the  Indian  is  included,  because  in  ancient  Zend  there  were  also 
castes.  Among  the  Persians  themselves,  as  they  descended  from 
their  mountains  to  the  conquest  of  other  nations,  there  was  properly 
only  a  military  nobility.  The  priesthood  was  subjected  to  the  royal 
power  which  represented  the  concrete  might  of  the  nation.  Of  the 
Persian  kings,  Cyrus  attacked  Western  Asia;  Cambyses,  Africa; 
Darius  and  Xerxes,  Europe ;  until  at  last  the  reaction  of  the  spirit- 
ually higher  nationality  of  Greece  did  not  content  itself  with  mere 
self-protection,  but  under  the  Macedonian  Alexander  returned  the 
attack  upon  Persia  itself. 

[Intercourse  with  foreign  nations  is  the  prime  source  of  na- 
tional activity.  The  Persian  desires  to  establish  an  uncondi- 
tioned empire.  To  do  this  he  must  reduce  to  submission  the 
tribes  and  states  that  border  on  his  frontier.  Out  of  the  Eu- 


208  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

phrates  Valley  in  earlier  times  the  Chaldeans  and  Assyrians  had 
made  inroads  upon  the  separate  branches  of  the  Aryan  race, 
which  are  now  united  and  form  the  Persian  Empire.  On  the 
north  and  east  the  Mongolian  tribes  menaced  the  peace  of  his 
border-land.  Under  Cyrus  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  and 
later,  all  Syria  and  Asia  Minor  are  subdued ;  under  Cambyses, 
Egypt.  But  the  Persian  can  not  annihilate  border-lands,  al- 
though he  removes  them  thousands  of  miles  from  his  capital. 
Beyond  Asia  lies  Europe.  Greece  contains  another  Aryan  peo- 
ple in  whom  are  beginning  the  impulses  toward  a  new  civiliza- 
tion far  more  favorable  to  individual  development  than  anything 
that  has  yet  appeared.  Darius  and  Xerxes  attempt  to  conquer 
this  new  limit,  but  fail  at  last.  Greece,  aroused  by  the  contest, 
and  learning  to  know  its  own  power,  returns  the  attack  in  the 
following  century,  and  all  the  territory  that  Persia  had  conquered 
yields  to  Alexander  and  his  generals.] 

§  197.  Education  enjoined  upon  the  Persians  (1)  to 
speak  the  truth ;  (2)  to  learn  to  ride  horseback,  and  to 
use  the  bow  and  arrow.  There  is  implied  in  the  first 
command  a  recognition  and  acknowledgment  of  the  re- 
ality of  things  and  events,  the  negation  of  all  dreamy 
absorption,  of  all  fantastical  vagueness ;  and  in  this  light 
the  Persian,  in  contrast  with  the  Hindoo,  appears  to  be 
sober  and  reasonable.  In  the  second  command  is  im- 
plied warlike  practice,  but  as  yet  that  of  the  nomadic 
tribes.  The  Persian  fights  on  horseback,  and  thus  ap- 
pears in  contrast  to  the  Indian  hermit-seclusion  and  the 
quietism  of  the  Lamas  as  restless  and  in  constant  motion. 

The  family  increases  in  value  as  it  rears  a  large  number  of  war- 
riors. To  have  many  children  was  a  blessing.  The  King  of  Persia 
gave  a  premium  for  all  children  over  a  certain  number.  Nations 
were  assembled  as  nations  for  war ;  hence  the  immense  multitude  of 
a  Persian  army.  Everything — family,  business,  possessions — must 
be  regardlessly  sacrificed  to  the  one  aim  of  war.  Education,  there- 
fore, cultivated  an  unconditional  obedience  to  the  king ;  the  slightest 
inclination  to  assert  an  individual  independence  was  high  treason 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  ACTIVE  EDUCATION.  209 

and  was  punished  with  death.  In  China,  on  the  contrary,  duty  to 
the  family  is  paramount  to  duty  to  the  state,  or  rather  is  itself  duty 
to  the  state.  The  civil  officer  who  mourns  the  loss  of  one  of  his 
family  is  released  during  the  period  of  mourning  from  the  duties 
of  his  function. 

[The  education  of  the  Persians  is  said  to  have  laid  great  stress 
on  (1)  speaking  truth,  and  (2)  learning  to  ride  horseback,  and  use 
the  bow  and  arrow.  To  speak  the  truth  implies  a  respect  for 
the  facts  and  events  of  the  world  as  they  are.  Under  the  pas- 
sive peoples  there  prevailed  a  greater  respect  for  human  ordi- 
nances, etiquette,  caste,  etc..  The  Hindoo  looked  upon  all 
nature  as  pure  illusion — a  sort  of  dream  which  is  imposed  upon 
man  because  of  his  fallen  condition.  East  Indian  poetry  gives 
rein  to  the  imagination,  and  allows  truth  to  interpose  no  limits 
to  its  exaggerations.  Hence  truth-speaking  seems  to  have  great 
significance.  It  could  not  be  encouraged  among  people  who 
despised  real  facts  and  events  and  held  in  contempt  all  ex- 
istence. We  must  not,  however,  count  the  civilizations  of 
Brahminism  and  Buddhism  as  of  no  value.  They  are  immense 
steps  in  advance  of  mere  tribal  civilization.  In  his  first  step 
away  from  mere  savage  life  man  exaggerates  the  importance  of 
ethical  usages  and  despises  in  a  corresponding  degree  the  facts 
and  events  of  Nature.  In  mere  tribal  life  the  savage  fears 
Nature,  and  has  no  peace  from  its  inconstancy  and  dreadful 
might.  After  long  progress  he  comes  to  revere  human  social 
order  as  superior.  The  members  of  the  family  are  supple- 
mented and  rendered  equal  by  mutual  help,  so  that  infancy,  old 
age,  sickness,  calamity,  and  sex  are  robbed  of  their  special  ter- 
rors. The  state  performs  a  similar  service  in  insuring  the  in- 
dividual against  vicissitude,  and  especially  against  violence  from 
mankind.  Civil  society  protects  the  individual  from  famine,  in 
case  of  failure  of  crops  in  one  particular  locality.  But  notwith- 
standing the  importance  of  social  order,  the  nations  of  Eastern 
Asia  go  to  extremes  in  their  reverence  for  it.  The  Western 
Asiatic  nations,  whom  Rosenkranz  calls  "  active  nations,"  cor- 
rect this  one-sidedness  in  various  ways.  The  Persian  trained 
his  youth  carefully  in  observing  accurately  the  exact  state  of 
facts  and  events  by  insisting  on  scrupulous  statements.  He 
taught  him  to  ride  horseback  and  use  the  bow  and  arrow.  Here 
the  state  as  such  became  the  most  important  institution,  whereas 


210  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

in  China  the  family,  in  India  the  divisions  of  civil  society,  in 
Thibet  the  church,  were  most  important.] 

§  198.  The  theoretical  education,  which  was  limited 
to  reading,  writing,  and  to  instruction  in  religious  cere- 
monial, was  in  the  hands  of  the  magi,  the  number  of 
whom  was  estimated  at  eighty  thousand,  and  who  them- 
selves had  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  a  careful  education, 
as  is  shown  by  their  gradation  into  Herbeds,  Mdbeds,  and 
Destur-mdbeds,  i.  e.,  into  apprentices,  journeymen,  and 
masters.  The  very  fundamental  idea  of  their  religion 
was  military ;  it  demanded  of  man  to  tight  on  the  side 
of  the  king  of  light,  and  guard  against  the  princes  of 
darkness  and  evil.  It  gave  to  him  the  honor' of  a  free 
position  between  the  world-moving  powers  and  thus  the 
possibility  of  a  self -chosen  career,  by  which  means  vigor 
and  chivalrous  feeling  were  developed.  Eeligion  di- 
rected the  activity  of  man  toward  the  realities  on  this 
planet,  making  it  its  object  to  increase  the  dominion  of 
the  good,  by  purifying  the  water,  by  planting  trees,  by 
extirpating  troublesome  wild  beasts.  Thus  it  increased 
bodily  comfort,  and  no  longer,  like  the  monk,  treated 
this  as  a  mere  negative  affair. 

[The  Magi,  a  separate  tribe,  said  to  number  eighty  thousand, 
furnished  the  teachers  of  reading,  writing,  and  religion.  They 
had  three  degrees  of  advancement  in  culture  among  them — ap- 
prentice, journeyman,  and  master  (Herbed,  Mobed,  and  Destur- 
mobed).  The  religion  of  China  has  a  family  character — the  wor- 
ship of  ancestors ;  the  religion  of  Old  Persia  has  a  character  tend- 
ing to  promote  the  interests  of  the  state — a  military  tendency. 
Ahura-Mazda  (Ormuzd),  the  good  spirit,  fights  against  Angra- 
Mainya  (Ahriman),  the  evil  spirit.  The  Persian  religion  teaches 
that  life  is  a  warfare,  and  that  all  good  men  must  fight  on  the  side 
of  Ormuzd,  the  king  of  light.  It  was  enjoined  by  religion  to  con- 
quer the  desert  by  planting  trees  and  digging  wells  and  increas- 
ing bodily  comfort.  This  is  in  contrast  to  the  spirit  of  Buddhism.] 


THE  SYSTEM   OF  ACTIVE  EDUCATION.  211 

II.  Priestly  Education. 

§  199.  War  achieves  its  purpose  through,  its  capacity 
to  inflict  death.  It  deals  out  death,  and  by  its  means 
decides  who  shall  serve  and  who  obey.  But  the  nation 
that  finds  its  activity  in  war,  though  it  makes  death  the 
servant  of  its  purpose,  yet  finds  its  own  limit  in  death. 
Other  nations  are  only  its  boundaries,  which  it  can  pass 
over  by  fighting  with  and  conquering  them.  But  death 
itself  it  can  never  escape,  whether  it  come  in  the  sands 
of  the  desert — that  buried  for  Cambyses  an  army  which 
he  sent  to  the  oracle  of  the  Libyan  Ammon — or  in  the 
sea,  that  scorns  the  rod  *  of  the  angry  despot,  or  by  the 
sword  of  the  free  man  f  who  guards  his  household  gods. 
On  this  account,  a  people  stands  higher  that  in  the  midst 
of  life  reflects  on  death,  or  rather  lives  for  it.  The  edu- 
cation of  such  a  nation  must  be  priestly,  because  death 
is  the  means  of  the  transition  to  the  future  life,  and  con- 
sequently it,  like  birth,  becomes  a  sacrament.  The  fam- 
ily-state, the  caste-state,  the  monkish-state,  and  the  mili- 
tary-state are  not  hierarchies  in  the  sense  that  the 
national  life  is  directed  by  a  priesthood.  But  in  Egypt 
this  was  actually  the  case,  because  the  chief  educational 
tribunal  was  the  death-court  which  judged  only  the 
dead,  awarding  to  them  or  denying  them  the  honor  of 
burial  as  the  result  of  their  whole  life.  Its  award,  how- 
ever, affected  also  the  honor  of  the  surviving  family. 

[War  is  directed  against  the  limits  of  national  sovereignty. 
Death  is  a  natural  limit  to  life.  War  succeeds  because  it  deals 
out  death  to  the  enemy.  While  the  Persian  directs  his  energies 

*  Xerxes  ordered  the  Hellespont  to  be  scourged  with  rods  because  his 
bridge  was  broken  by  the  waves. 

t  Say,  at  Marathon,  Salamis,  and  Thermopylae. 
21 


212  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

against  the  limit  of  the  state,  the  Egyptian  occupies  himself 
with  the  consideration  of  the  supreme  limit  of  life  itself.  The 
leading  idea  of  Egyptian  civilization  seems  to  be  the  prepara- 
tion for  death.  Tho  death-court  that  decided  upon  the  merits 
of  the  life  of  each  individual  at  his  decease  furnished  the  most 
important  educative  influence  in  the  land.  It  established  an 
ideal  standard  of  living  and  gave  daily  illustrations  of  its  appli- 
cation to  particular  examples.  Those  who  approximated  this 
ideal  were  awarded  the  honor  of  being  embalmed — they  were 
considered  fit  to  dwell  with  Osiris  in  the  "still  kingdom  of 
Amenti."  The  priestly  caste  in  Egypt  were  the  teachers.] 

§  200.  General  education  here  limited  itself  to  read- 
ing, writing,  and  arithmetic.  Special  education  con- 
sisted properly  only  in  training  the  youth  for  a  definite 
vocation  within  the  circle  of  the  family.  In  this  fruit- 
ful and  warm  land  the  expense  of  supporting  children 
was  very  small.  The  division  into  classes  was  without 
the  cruel  features  of  the  Indian  civilization,  and  life 
itself  in  the  narrow  valley  of  the  Nile  was  very  social, 
abounding  in  festivities,  and  in  eating  and  drinking,  and 
was  brave  and  cheerful,  because  the  familiarity  with 
death  heightened  the  force  of  enjoyment.  In  a  stricter 
sense  only,  the  warriors,  the  priests,  and  the  kings  had 
an  education.  The  aim  of  life,  which  was  to  determine 
at  death  its  eternal  future,  to  secure  for  itself  a  passage 
into  the  still  kingdom  of  Amenti,  manifested  itself  ex- 
ternally in  the  care  which  they  expended  on  the  pres- 
ervation of  the  dead  hull  of  the  immortal  soul,  and  on 
this  account  devoted  its  temporal  life  to  building  tombs 
to  last  an  eternity.  The  Chinese  builds  a  wall  to  secure 
his  family-state  from  attack ;  the  Hindoo  builds  pagodas 
for  his  gods ;  the  Buddhist  erects  for  himself  monastic 
cells ;  the  Persian  constructs  in  Persepolis  the  tomb  of 
his  kings,  where  they  may  retire  in  the  evening  of  their 


THE  SYSTEM  OP  ACTIVE  EDUCATION.  213 

lives  after  they  have  rioted  in  Ecbatana,  Babylon,  and 
Susa ;  but  the  Egyptian  builds  his  own  tomb,  and  car- 
ries on  war  only  to  protect  it. 

[The  Egyptian  finds  it  possible  to  conquer  Nature  and  make  it 
serve  him.  He  builds  canals  and  dikes  to  regulate  the  over- 
flow of  the  Nile,  and  thereby  get  the  utmost  service  from  the 
fertilizing  power  of  the  fine  soil  that  the  river  brings  down  to 
him  from  the  mountains  at  the  south.  Observation  of  Nature, 
necessary  for  the  purpose  of  utilizing  the  Nile  freshets,  leads  him 
to  a  knowledge  of  astronomy,  the  construction  of  calendars,  and 
to  hydraulic  engineering.  He  understands  irrigation,  the  con- 
struction of  canals,  dams,  and  reservoirs.  He  invents  the  science 
of  geometry,  so  far  as  it  is  required  in  surveying,  because  he  has 
to  recover  his  farm  every  year  after  the  inundation,  and  fix  anew 
its  boundaries.  Farms  on  the  banks  of  the  river  are  liable  to  be 
washed  away  by  new  channels  cut  through  by  freshets,  or  the 
old  landmarks  may  be  covered  up  or  destroyed ;  hence  he  is 
led  to  a  more  careful  system  of  laws  on  the  subject  of  landed 
property,  the  rights  and  privileges  appertaining  to  its  use  and 
its  ownership.  Egypt  invents  writing  by  hieroglyphics,  and 
develops  out  of  it  two  other  systems,  the  syllabic  and  alphabetic. 
The  priestly  caste  taught  arithmetic,  geometry,  surveying  and 
mensuration,  civil  engineering,  reading  and  writing  and  music 
to  youth  of  their  own  caste  as  well  as  to  the  caste  of  warriors. 
Plato,  however,  tells  us  that  the  children  of  the  Egyptians  were 
taught  to  read  in  classes.  Diodorus  says  that  even  the  artisans 
were  taught  to  read.  Perhaps  this  was  necessary  to  the  numer- 
ous artisans  who  engraved  inscriptions  on  the  temples  and 
tombs.  We  learn  that  arithmetic  was  taught  by  means  of 
games  and  plays,  such  as  trading  pieces  of  money,  guessing  at 
the  number  of  grains  of  wheat  held  in  the  hand,  or  by  arrang- 
ing pupils  in  military  lines.  The  cost  of  living  was  so  cheap 
that  four  dollars  in  our  money  would  have  supported  a  single 
individual  until  twenty  years  of  age.] 

III.  Industrial  Education. 

§  201.  The  system  of  active  education  was  to  find 
its  solution  in  a  nation  which  wandered  from  the  coast 


PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS    OF  EDUCATION. 

of  the  Red  Sea  to  the  foot  of  the  Lebanon  Mountains 
on  the  Mediterranean,  and  ventured  forth  upon  the  sea 
which  before  that  time  all  nations  had  avoided  as  a  dan- 
gerous and  destructive  element.  The  Phoenician  was 
industrial,  and  needed  markets  where  he  could  dispose 
of  the  products  of  his  skill.  But  while  he  sought  for 
them  he  disdained  neither  force  nor  deceit :  he  planted 
colonies ;  he  stipulated  that  he  should  have  in  the  cities 
of  other  nations  quarters  for  himself;  he  induced  the 
nations  to  adopt  articles  of  luxury,  and  insensibly  intro- 
duced among  them  his  culture  and  even  his  religion. 
The  education  of  such  a  nation  must  have  seemed  pro- 
fane, because  it  fostered  indifference  toward  family  and 
one's  native  land,  and  made  restless  and  even  passionate 
activity  subservient  to  gain.  The  practical  understand- 
ing and  utilitarianism  rose  to  a  high  dignity. 

[The  Phoenician  resembles  the  other  active  peoples  in  having 
for  his  supreme  aim  the  conquest  of  a  limit  to  his  being.  In- 
dustry aims  to  conquer  Nature  in  so  far  as  it  limits  our  lives  in 
the  form  of  three  wants— food,  clothing,  and  shelter.  In  order 
to  overcome  these  completely,  man  must  lay  under  contribution 
all  lands  and  all  climates.  One  locality  compensates  for  the  de- 
ficiencies of  another.  Commerce,  then,  is  the  form  of  industry 
that  aids  most  effectively  the  conquest  over  Nature.  The  Phoeni- 
cian leaves  his  home  and  braves  the  ocean.  Education  must  be  of 
such  a  character  that  it  will  wean  the  youth  from  love  of  home. 
Tyre,  Sidon,  Byblus,  Berytus,  Tripolis,  Aradis,  were  places  of 
great  security  on  the  land  side,  while  they  afforded  security 
for  shipping  on  the  seaward  side.  Manufactures  of  metallic 
goods,  glass,  linen  textures  dyed  with  the  wonderful  Tyrian 
purple,  furnished  the  home  productions  with  which  to  obtain 
the  coveted  articles  of  foreign  peoples.  Tin  from  Cornwall, 
amber  from  the  Baltic,  gold-dust  from  Western  Africa,  were 
brought  home  and  used  in  manufactures.  Trains  of  loaded 
camels  pierced  the  deserts  and  arrived  at  the  great  cities  on  the 
Euphrates.  Phoenician  colonies  settled  Cyprus,  Crete,  Carthage, 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  ACTIVE  EDUCATION.      215 

Gades  (Cadiz).  The  Phoenician  carried  the  alphabetic  writing 
of  Egypt  to  all  parts  of  Europe,  for  in  commerce  writing  is  in- 
dispensable.] 

§  202.  Of  the  education  of  tlie  Phoenicians  we  know 
only  so  much  as  to  enable  us  to  conclude  that  it  was 
certainly  various  and  extensive :  among  the  Carthagini- 
ans, at  least,  that  their  children  were  practiced  in  read- 
ing, writing,  and  arithmetic,  in  religious  duties;  sec- 
ondly, in  a  trade;  and,  finally,  in  the  use  of  arms. 
Commerce  became  with  the  Phoenicians  their  chief  oc- 
cupation, and  self-interest  made  them  brave  to  plow  the 
inhospitable  sea  and,  led  by  curiosity,  penetrate  the 
horror  of  its  vast  distances,  but  yet  conceal  from  other 
nations  their  discoveries  and  wrap  them  in  a  veil  of 
fable. 

It  is  a  beautiful  testimony  to  the  quality  of  the  Greek  inind  that 
Plato  and  others  assign  as  a  cause  of  the  low  state  of  arithmetic  and 
mathematics  among  the  Phoenicians  and  Egyptians  the  want  of  free 
and  disinterested  investigation. 

[Education  assumes  a  utilitarian  character  for  a  commercial 
people — especially  arithmetic  and  penmanship  form  the  com- 
mercial arts.  Inasmuch  as  affection  for  home  and  parents 
would  injure  the  quality  of  the  sailor,  education  rooted  out  this 
affection.  The  fearful  worship  of  Moloch,  the  fire-god,  to  whom 
they  sacrificed  children,  laying  them  in  his  red-hot  arms  in  the 
presence  of  mothers  who  were  not  permitted  to  express  their 
pain  by  cries  was  a  powerful  means  of  educating  parental  and 
filial  indifference  necessary  to  produce  a  population  of  commer- 
cial adventurers.  Their  religious  rites  thus  assisted  to  form  the 
national  character.  Not  only  arithmetic  and  writing,  but  cun- 
ning and  deceit  were  taught,  as  necessaiy  for  skillful  bargains.] 


216  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THIRD    GROUP. — THE    SYSTEM    OF    INDIVIDUAL    EDUCATION 

§  203.  ONE-SIDED  passivity  as  well  as  one-sided  activ- 
ity is  subsumed  under  individuality,  which  makes  itself 
into  its  own  end  and  aim.  The  Phoenician  made  gain 
his  aim ;  his  activity  was  of  a  utilitarian  character.  In- 
dividuality  as  an  educational  principle  is  indeed  selfish 
in  so  far  as  it  endeavors  to  cultivate  its  own  peculiarity, 
but  it  is  at  the  same  time  noble.  It  desires  not  to  have, 
but  to  ~be.  Individuality  also  begins  in  what  is  natural, 
but  it  elevates  nature  by  means  of  art  to  ideality.  The 
principle  of  beauty  gives  place  to  the  principle  of  cult- 
ure, which  renounces  the  charm  of  appearance  for  the 
knowledge  of  the  true.  The  aesthetic  individuality  is 
followed  by  the  practical,  which  has  no  longer  any  basis 
in  natural  relations,  but  proceeds  from  an  artificial  basis 
— a  state  formed  for  a  place  of  refuge.  In  order  to  cre- 
ate an  internal  unity  in  this,  a  definite  code  of  laws  is 
framed;  in  order  to  assure  its  external  safety,  the  in- 
vincible warrior  is  demanded.  Education  is  therefore, 
more  exactly  speaking,  training  in  juristic  and  military 
affairs.  The  morality  of  the  state  is  undermined  as  it 
brings  into  its  mechanism  one  nation  after  another,  until 
it  encounters  an  individuality,  become  daemonic,  which 
makes  its  war-hardened  legions  tremble  with  weakness. 
We  characterize  this  individuality  as  daemonic  because 
it  desires  recognition  simply  for  its  own  sake.  Not  for 
its  beauty  and  culture,  not  for  its  knowledge  of  business 
and  its  bravery,  only  for  its  peculiarity  as  such  does  it 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.          217 

claim  value,  and  in  the  effort  to  secure  this  it  is  ready 
to  hazard  life  itself.  In  its  naturally  growing  existence 
this  individuality  is  deep,  but  at  the  same  time  without 
self-limit.  The  nations  educate  themselves  to  this  in^ 
dividuality  when  they  destroy  the  Roman  world — that 
of  self-limit  and  balance — which  they  find. 

[Individuality  contains  both  passivity  and  activity.  Rosen- 
kranz  understands  by  "individual  education"  that  education! 
which  has  for  its  sole  aim  the  development  of  the  individual! 
instead  of  seeking  an  external  object  for  which  it  subordinates 
the  individual.  It  desires  not  to  have,  but  to  ~be.  The  phases  of 
"  individual "  education  are  three :  (a)  aesthetic  education,  which 
seeks  to  make  a  work  of  art  out  of  man ;  it  develops  into  a  love  of 
truth,  and  finally  sets  aside  seeming  for  being  ;  (b)  practical  edu- 
cation, that  of  Rome,  deals  not  with  the  beautiful  nor  with  the 
true,  but  with  the  realization  of  the  will  in  its  essence.  The 
will  of  man  is  not  revealed  in  caprice  and  arbitrariness,  nor  in 
mere  customary  usages.  The  essential  forms  are  embodied  in 
laws  of  justice  and  in  rights.  For  these  express  what  is  and  may 
be  universal — the  common  ground  of  all  particular  volitions. 
Violate  the  law,  and  each  man's  deed  is  against  the  deeds  of  all 
other  men.  Without  law  the  aggregate  action  of  man  tends 
toward  self-nullification.  The  Roman  principle  in  the  world- 
history  concerns  the  discovery  and  enunciation  of  the  just  self- 
limitation  of  will,  and  it  has  bequeathed  to  the  world  the  code 
of  laws  and  forms  of  municipal  government  which  make  possi- 
ble modern  civilization.  The  Greek  has  left  us  the  ideal  stand- 
ard of  the  beautiful  and  the  statement  of  the  true,  as  well  as  the 
form  of  its  investigation.  Each  of  these  activities  involves  the 
culture  of  the  individual:  (a)  the  graceful  body;  (b)  the  de- 
veloped intellect;  (c)  the  formation  of  character.  The  Greek 
individuality  is  undermined  by  the  discovery  of  the  principle  of 
truth  as  higher  than  beauty.  The  Roman  principle  is  under- 
mined by  the  conquest  of  all  nations ;  its  success  destroys  it  by 
removing  the  tension  which  had  existed  against  other  nations, 
and  which  had  helped  it  to  form  the  Roman  character.  It  now 
encounters  the  third  phase  of  individuality — that  of  the  Gothic 
or  Teutonic  nations.  These  northern  peoples  do  not  make  special 


218      PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

individuality  their  object  either  in  the  form  of  the  beautiful,  of  the 
true,  or  of  the  firm  and  just  character.  They  make  general  indi- 
viduality their  object,  without  any  special  aims,  or  with  any  and 
all  aims.  Individuality  of  this  sort  is  called  "  daemonic "  by 
Rosenkranz,  because  it  does  not  consider  any  other  motives  than 
recognition  of  the  peculiar  self  of  the  individual,  counting  as 
naught  all  possessions,  wisdom,  justice,  sacred  ordinances,  and 
demanding  recognition  solely.  This  trait  of  the  Gothic  race  re- 
appears always  when  its  individuals  settle  on  a  border-land  or 
resort  to  partisan  warfare.  The  chieftains  of  the  Scottish  bor- 
der-land, the  Norse  sea-kings,  the  Crusaders,  the  knights  of 
Charlemagne,  the  Cid — even  the  "  cow-boy  "  desperadoes  of  our 
own  border-land — exhibit  this  supreme  love  of  individuality  for 
its  own  sake.  Rome  conquered  the  northern  peoples,  and  then 
taught  them  civil  law  and  military  tactics.  They  then  assumed 
the  mastership  of  the  world,  and  modern  history  begins.] 


I.  ^Esthetic  Education. 

§  204.  The  system  of  individual  education  begins 
with  the  transfiguration  of  the  immediate  individuality 
into  beauty.  On  the  side  of  nature  this  system  is  pas- 
sive, for  individuality  is  given  through  nature ;  but  on 
the  side  of  spirit  it  is  active,  for  spirit  must  determine 
to  restrain  itself  within  limits  as  the  essence  of  beauty. 

[^Esthetic  individuality  involves  a  passive  side,  in  so  far  as  it 
presupposes  the  body  as  an  organic  product  of  nature.  It  pro- 
ceeds to  cultivate  its  natural  gifts  by  training  through  gymnas- 
tics, and  this  is  its  active  side.  Self-control,  manifested  physical- 
ly, produces  what  we  call  gracefulness,  and  gracefulness  is  the 
Greek  ideal  of  beauty.  It  may  be  defined  as  the  bodily  mani- 
festation of  freedom.  Every  limb  of  a  Greek  statue  seems  to  be 
posed  as  it  is  because  the  soul  within  thus  wills  it.  "Self- 
limitation  "  is  a  characteristic  of  Greek  character — moderation, 
the  golden  mean,  being  its  manifestation.] 

§  205.  Here  the  individual  is  of  value  only  in  so  far 
as  he  is  beautiful.  At  first  beauty  is  apprehended  as 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.          219 

natural,  but  secondly  it  is  carried  over  into  the  realm  of 
spirit  (i.  e.,  into  the  institutions  of  civilization),  and  the 
good  is  posited  as  identical  with  the  beautiful.  The 
ideal  of  aesthetic  education  demands  always  that  there 
shall  be  also  an  external  unity  of  the  good  with  the 
beautiful,  of  spirit  with  Nature; 

We  can  not  here  give  in  detail  the  history  of  Greek  education. 
It  is  the  best  known  among  us,  and  the  literature  in  which  it  is 
worked  out  is  very  extensive.  .  .  .  We  must  content  ourselves  with 
mentioning  the  chief  epochs  which  follow  from  the  nature  of  its 
principle. 

[The  beautiful  was  first  realized  in  the  living  bodies  of  ath- 
letes (the  "  natural "  phase  of  the  beautiful).  In  the  next  place 
it  was  realized  in  social  forms,  civil  and  political.  The  "  natu- 
ral "  phase  of  the  beautiful  was  developed  in  the  games.  There 
were  the  great  national  games :  the  Olympian,  celebrated  once  in 
four  years ;  the  Isthmian,  once  in  two  years ;  the  Nemean,  once 
in  two  years ;  the  Pythian,  once  in  four  years ;  so  that  nearly 
every  year  there  was  a  great  national  celebration  in'  which  it 
was  determined  who  of  all  Greece  should  carry  off  the  prize  at 
wrestling,  boxing,  and  throwing  the  discus,  the  spear,  or  the 
javelin ;  who  could  excel  at  running,  leaping,  the  chariot-race, 
or  the  horseback-race.  The  preparation  for  these  great  national 
festivals  took  place  in  every  village  in  the  land  every  week  and 
every  day.  The  daily  labor  for  the  necessities  of  life  was  all 
well  enough,  but  the  Greek  considered  games  of  far  greater  im- 
portance. -Games  were  in  fact  his  highest  religious  ceremonies. 
For  he  believed  that  his  gods  were  supremely  beautiful  human 
forms,  in  whose  likeness  human  beings  were  intended  to  be. 
The  games  were  instituted  to  celebrate  this  likeness  of  man  to 
the  gods  as  well  as  to  develop  and  increase  this  likeness.  The 
people  attended  these  games  and  in  time  each  and  all  became 
good  judges  of  what  is  beautiful  and  graceful  in  human  form 
just  as  a  community  that  attends  horse-races  comes  to  know  at  a 
glance  the  good  points  of  a  horse.  Neighboring  villages  unite 
for  more  general  games  on  special  occasions.  Then  the  entire 
state  has  its  festival.  The  victors  in  each  state  go  up  to  those 
great  national  games  founded  by  heroes  and  demi-gods  in  order 


220  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

to  decide  their  relative  claims  for  the  leadership.  Among  a 
people  thus  educated  as  to  the  living  work  of  art,  it  became 
possible  for  such  artists  to  arise  as  Phidias,  Polycletus,  and 
Praxiteles.  Their  \\orks  could  be  appreciated  as  never  since. 
The  perfection  in  form  and  gracefulness  of  carriage  reached  by 
the  victors  in  the  games  are  fixed  for  eternity  in  shapes  of  stone, 
and  no  one  is  considered  fully  educated  in  any  civilized  land 
until  he  knows  something  about  the  Greek  ideal  of  the  beauti- 
ful. Greek  education  has  thus  resulted  in  preparing  for  us  one 
phase  of  the  world-education.  The  statues  of  gods  and  demi- 
gods that  have  come  down  to  us  cause  our  unbounded  astonish- 
ment at  their  perfection  of  form.  It  is  not  their  resemblance  to 
living  bodies,  not  their  anatomical  exactness  that  interests  us, 
nor  their  so-called  "  truth  to  nature,"  but  their  gracefulness  and 
serenity,  their  "  classic  repose."  Whether  these  statues  represent 
gods  and  heroes  in  action  or  in  sitting  and  reclining  postures, 
there  is  ever  present  this  "repose,"  which  means  indwelling 
vital  activity,  and  not  mere  rest  as  opposed  to  movement. 
They  are  full  of  movement,  though  at  rest,  and  full  of  repose 
when  in  violent  action.  In  their  activity  they  manifest  con- 
siderate purpose  and  perfect  self-control.  The  repose  is  of  the 
soul  and  not  a  physical  repose.  Even  sitting  and  reclining 
figures — for  example,  the  so-called  Theseus  from  the  Parthenon, 
or  the  torso  of  the  Belvedere — are  replete  with  will-power  in 
every  limb,  so  that  the  repose  is  seen  to  be  voluntary  self- 
restraint,  and  not  the  repose  which  accompanies  the  absence  of 
vital  energy.] 

§  206.  Education  was  in  Greece  thoroughly  national. 
Education  gave  to  the  individual  the  consciousness  that 
he  was  a  Greek  and  no  barbarian,  a  free  man,  and  so 
subject  only  to  the  laws  of  the  state,  and  not  to  the  ca- 
price of  any  one  person.  Thus  the  nationality  was  freed 
at  once  from  the  despotic  unity  of  the  family  and  from 
the  exclusiveness  of  caste,  through  the  fact  that  it  com- 
bined within  itself  the  manifold  talents  of  individuals 
of  different  races.  Thus  the  Dorian  race  held  as  essen- 
tial, gymnastics;  the  ^Eolians,  music;  the  lonians,  po- 


THE  SYSTEM   OF   INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.  221 

etry.  The  JEolian  individuality  was  absorbed  in  the 
development  of  the  two  others,  and  the  latter  unfolded 
an  internal  antagonism.  The  education  of  the  Dorian 
race  was  national  education  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the 
word ;  in  it  a  uniform  public  education  was  given  to 
all  in  common,  even  including  the  young  women ; 
among  the  Ionic  race  it  was  also  in  its  subjects  taught 
truly  national,  but  in  its  form  it  was  select  and  private 
for  those  belonging  to  various  great  families  and  clans. 
The  former,  reproducing  the  Oriental  phase  of  abstract 
unity,  educated  all  in  one  mold ;  the  latter  was  the  nurs- 
ery of  particular  individualities. 

[Greek  education  gave  the  individual  the  consciousness  of 
freedom  from  the  despotism  of  arbitrary  will.  The  laws  were 
the  will  for  all.  Neither  family  nor  caste  prevailed  over  the  in- 
dividual. Since  the  Amphictyonic  League  united  the  different 
Greek  states  without  consolidating  them,  the  distinctions  of  in- 
dividuality were  preserved.  While  the  Dorian  races  (of  Sparta, 
Argos,  and  Messenia)  held  to  gymnastics  almost  exclusively,  the 
jEolians  (of  Bceotia  and  Thessaly)  cultivated  music  as  of  equal 
importance,  and  the  lonians  (of  Athens  and  the  islands  of  the 
Archipelago)  included  poetry  as  especially  essential.  The  Dori- 
ans tended  toward  the  Persian  form  of  Orientalism,  educating 
all  in  one  mold  and  repressing  individualism.  But,  as  the  main 
object  of  its  education  was  individualism,  it  contradicted  itself 
by  forcing  all  into  one  type.  Especially  in  Athens  we  find  the 
nursery  of  individuality  in  all  its  peculiarity.] 

§  207.  (1)  Education  in  the  heroic  age  was  without 
any  systematic  arrangement,  and  left  each  one  perfectly 
free.  They  told  the  histories  of  the  adventures  of  other 
heroes,  and  by  their  own  deeds  gave  material  for  similar 
histories  to  others. 

The  Greeks  began  where  the  last  stage  of  the  active  system  of 
education  ended — with  piracy  and  the  seizure  of  women.  Swimming 
was  a  universal  practice  among  the  sea-dwelling  Greeks,  just  as  in 


222      PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

England — the  mistress  of  the  ocean — rowing  is  the  most  prominent 
exercise  among  the  students,  and  for  its  encouragement  public  re- 
gattas are  held. 

[In  the  heroic  age  education  fitted  the  individual  for  advent- 
ures, chiefly  in  the  interest  of  the  welfare  of  Hellas,  however. 
Surrounding  peoples  were  called  "  barbarians,"  and  were  thought 
to  possess  no  rights  that  the  Greek  was  bound  to  respect.  The 
heroes  belong  to  the  maritime  states,  and  are  associated  with  ad- 
ventures on  the  sea.  Hercules,  who  seems  to  have  been  sug- 
gested by  the  Phoenician  Melkarth,  is  of  a  more  humane  type 
than  the  Phoenician  educational  ideal.  There  is  a  trace  of  a  sun- 
myth  in  his  twelve  labors,  showing  Oriental  origin,  and  doubtless 
the  hero  is  a  reminiscence,  through  several  modifications,  of  the 
hero  Izdubar  and  the  famous  god  Mar-duk  of  the  Euphrates  Val- 
ley (the  great  "  Tower  of  Babel "  was  dedicated  to  Mar-duk).] 

§  208.  (2)  In  the  period  of  state-education  proper, 
education  developed  itself  systematically;  and  gym- 
nastics, music,  and  grammatics,  or  literary  culture,  consti- 
tuted the  general  pedagogical  elements. 

[Besides  gymnastics  and  music,  grammatics,  or  study  of  letters 
and  literature,  is  named  as  an  element  of  the  later  education.] 

§  209.  Gymnastics  aimed  not  alone  to  render  the 
body  strong  and  agile,  but,  far  more,  to  produce  in  it  a 
noble  carriage,  a  dignified  and  graceful  manner  of  ap- 
pearance. Each  one  fashioned  his  body  into  a  living, 
divine  statue,  and  in  the  public  games  the  nation  crowned 
the  victor. 

(Note  on  the  Greek  relation  of  CUTTJS  and  eJWvTjAas  here  omitted.) 
[Objects  aimed  at  in  gymnastics.  See  commentary  on  §§  204 

and  205.] 

§  210.  It  was  the  task  of  music,  by  its  rhythm  and 
measure,  to  fill  the  soul  with  well-proportioned  harmony. 
So  highly  did  the  Greeks  prize  music,  and  so  variously 
did  they  practice  it,  that  to  be  a  musical  man  meant  the 
same  with  them  as  to  be  a  cultivated  man  with  us. 


THE  SYSTEM  OP  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.          223 

Education  in  this  branch  was  very  painstaking,  inas- 
much as  music  exercises  a  very  powerful  influence  in 
developing  discreet  behavior  and  self-possession  into  a 
graceful  naturalness. 

Among  the  Greeks  we  find  a  spontaneous  delight  in  Nature — a 
listening  to  her  voices,  the  tone  of  which  reveals  the  internal  qualities 
of  things.  In  comparison  with  this  tender  sympathy  of  the  Greeks 
with  Nature — who  heard  in  the  murmur  of  the  fountains,  in  the 
dashing  of  the  waves,  in  the  rustling  of  the  trees,  and  in  the  cry  of 
animals,  the  voice  of  divine  personality — the  sight  and  hearing  of  the 
Oriental  people  for  Nature  is  dull. 

[Music  expressed  to  the  ear  what  gracefulness  did  to  the  eye — 
a  sense  of  rhythm.  Rhythm  is  appearance  of  an  internal  meas- 
ure, a  principle  that  regulates  and  harmonizes  external  appear- 
ance. The  Greek  temple  was  a  petrified  hymn  to  the  gods 
(Goethe  said  that  architecture  is  "  frozen  music  ").  Music  did 
not  have  the  narrow  meaning  that  it  possesses  in  our  language. 
It  referred  to  the  nine  Muses  and  to  all  rhythmical  culture.  In 
Hegel's  "  Philosophy  of  History  "  is  found  the  most  wonderful 
characterization  of  the  Greeks.  The  ear  with  which  they  list- 
ened to  the  tones  of  Nature — murmur  of  fountains,  rustling  of 
trees,  cries  of  animals,  etc. — revealed  to  them  the  spiritual  beings 
which  they  conceived  to  be  behind  natural  appearances.  The 
faculty  of  thus  interpreting  Nature  was  called  parrela,  as  Hegel 
(p.  245,  English  translation)  calls  to  our  attention.] 

§  211.  The  stringed  instrument,  the  cithern,  was  pre- 
ferred by  the  Greeks  to  all  wind  instruments  because  it 
was  not  exciting,  and  allowed  the  accompaniment  of 
recitation  or  song,  i.  e.,  a  simultaneous  spiritual  activity 
on  the  part  of  the  performer,  in  poetry.  Flute-playing 
was  first  brought  from  Asia  Minor  after  the  victorious 
progress  of  the  Persian  war,  and  was  especially  culti- 
vated in  Thebes.  They  sought  in  vain  afterward  to 
oppose  the  wild  excitement  raised  by  its  influence. 

[The  cithern  (iciddpa,  pronounced  nearly  like  guitar,  which  is  its 
modern  equivalent)  was  first  preferred.  The  flute,  used  after- 


224  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

ward  in  Thebes,  is  spoken  of  by  the  ancients  as  dangerous  to  the 
virtues  of  the  people.  Aristotle  ("  Politics,"  book  viii,  chap,  vi) 
says,  "  The  flute  is  not  a  moral  instrument,  but  rather  one  that 
will  inflame  the  passions."  This  surprises  us.] 

§  212.  Grammar  comprehended  letters  (ypdpnara), 
i.  e.,  the  elements  of  literary  culture,  reading  and  writ- 
ing. Much  attention  was  given  to  correct  expression. 
The  fables  of  JSsop,  the  Iliad,  and  the  Odyssey,  and 
later  the  tragic  poets  were  read,  and  partly  learned  by 
heart.  The  orators  borrowed  from  them  often  the  orna- 
ment of  their  commonplace  remarks. 

[The  favorite  reading-books  were  "  -^Esop,"  the  "  Iliad,"  and 
**  Odyssey,"  and  later  the  tragic  poets,  certainly  a  rich  collection.] 

§  213.  (3)  The  internal  growth  of  what  was  peculiar 
to  the  Grecian  state  came  to  an  end  with  the  war  for 
the  Hegemony.  Its  dissolution  began,  and  the  philo- 
sophical period  followed  the  political.  The  beautiful 
ethical  life  dissolved  before  the  thoughts  of  the  true, 
beautiful,  and  good.  Individuality  developed  the  habit 
of  reflection,  and  undertook  to  subject  freedom,  the  ex- 
isting regulations,  laws  and  customs,  to  the  criticism  of 
reason,  and  to  inquire  whether  these  were  in  and  for 
themselves  universal  and  necessary.  The  Sophists,  as 
teachers  of  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  philosophy,  under- 
took to  extend  the  cultivation  of  reflection ;  and  this  in- 
troduced instability  where  the  moral  customs  had  hith- 
erto obtained  unquestioning  obedience.  Among  the 
women,  the  ffetcerce  undertook  the  same  revolution ;  in 
the  place  of  the  Trorvia  wryp  appeared  the  beauty,  who 
stood  apart  from  her  sex  in  the  consciousness  of  her 
charms  and  in  the  perfection  of  her  varied  culture,  and 
exhibited  herself  to  the  public  admiration.  The  tend- 
ency to  idiosyncrasy  often  approached  willfulness,  ca- 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.          225 

price,  and  whimsicality,  and  opposition  to  the  national 
moral  sense.  A  Diogenes  in  a  tub  became  possible ;  the 
genial  but  graceful  frivolity  of  an  Alcibiades  charmed, 
even  though  it  was  openly  condemned ;  a  Socrates  com- 
pleted the  rupture  in  the  popular  consciousness,  and  urged 
upon  the  system  of  the  old  morality  the  pregnant  ques- 
tion, whether  virtue  could  be  taught  ?  Socrates  worked 
as  a  philosopher  who  was  at  the  same  time  an  educator. 
Pythagoras  had  imposed  upon  his  pupils  of  both  sexes 
the  strict  and  narrow  discipline  of  a  common,  exactly 
defined  manner  of  living.  Socrates,  on  the  contrary, 
freed  his  disciples — in  general,  those  who  conversed 
with  him — leading  them  to  the  consciousness  of  their 
own  individuality.  He  introduced  a  revolution  into 
the  education  of  youth  in  that  he  taught  them,  instead 
of  a  thoughtless  obedience  to  moral  customs,  to  seek  to 
comprehend  things  and  events  by  their  purpose  in  the 
world,  and  to  rule  their  actions  by  deliberate  consider- 
ation of  ends  and  aims.  Outwardly  he  conformed  to 
the  popular  standard  in  politics,  and  in  war  (as  at  Mara- 
thon) ;  but  in  the  direction  of  his  teaching  he  was  sub- 
jective and  modern. 

[The  Peloponnesian  war  broke  up  the  internal  unity  of  Greece 
and  put  an  end  to  the  worship  of  the  beautiful.  Teachers  of 
grammar,  rhetoric,  and  philosophy  taught  the  youth  to  criticise 
existing  customs  and  regulations.  All  simplicity  disappeared. 
Individuality  approached  whimsicality.  Socrates  completed  the 
revolution.  He  is  the  first  to  elevate  blind  adherence  to  custom 
to  free  moral  action.  He  recognizes  conscience  or  individual 
standard  of  right,  and  urges  each  one  to  rule  his  actions  by  re- 
flection upon  what  is  just  and  expedient.  Before  his  time  divi- 
nation was  resorted  to,  or  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  oracle  or 
to  the  auspices  on  the  occasion  of  any  new  undertaking.  The 
will  looked  to  some  external  event— some  sign,  portent,  or  omen 


226  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

— to  guide  its  action.  With  Socrates  begins  the  mode  to  which 
we  are  accustomed,  the  decision  through  reflection  on  several 
courses  of  action  possible.] 

§  214.  This  idea,  that  virtue  could  be  taught,  was 
realized  especially  by  Plato  and  Aristotle ;  the  former 
inclining  to  Dorianism,  the  latter  holding  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  individuality  in  nearly  the  modern  sense.  As 
regards  the  pedagogical  means — gymnastics,  music,  and 
grammar — both  philosophers  substantially  agreed.  But, 
in  the  seizing  of  the  pedagogical  development  in  gen- 
eral, Plato  held  that  the  education  of  the  individual  be- 
longed to  the  state  alone,  because  the  individual  was  to 
devote  himself  wholly  to  the  state.  On  the  other  hand, 
while  Aristotle  also  holds  that  the  state  should,  as  a 
general  thing,  conduct  the  education  of  its  citizens,  and 
that  the  individual  should  be  trained  for  the  interest  of 
the  state,  yet  he  recognizes  also  the  family,  and  the  pe- 
culiarity of  the  individual,  as  positive  powers,  to  which 
the  state  must  accord  relative  freedom.  Plato  sacrifices 
the  family  to  the  state,  and  must  therefore  have  sacred 
marriages,  nurseries,  and  common  and  public  educational 
institutions.  Each  one  shall  do>  only  that  which  he  is 
fitted  to  do,  and  shall  work  at  this  one  employment  so 
as  to  perfect  his  skill  in  it ;  but  to  what  he  shall  direct 
his  energies,  and  in  what  he  shall  be  instructed,  shall  be 
determined  by  the  government,  and  the  individuality 
consequently  is  not  left  free.  Aristotle  also  will  have 
for  all  the  citizens  a  uniform,  common,  and  public  edu- 
cation ;  but  he  allows,  at  the  same  time,  independence 
to  the  family  and  self-determination  to  the  individual, 
so  that  a  sphere  of  private  life  presents  itself  within  the 
etate :  a  difference  by  means  of  which  a  much  broader 
scope  of  individuality  is  possible. 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.          227 

These  two  philosophers  have  come  to  represent  two  very  differ- 
ent directions  in  the  science  of  education,  which  at  intervals,  in  cer- 
tain stages  of  culture,  reappear — the  one,  the  tyrannical  guardian- 
ship of  the  state  which  assumes  the  work  of  education,  tyrannical  to 
the  individual ;  and  the  other,  the  free  development  of  the  liberal 
system  of  state-education,  which  directs  itself  against  idiosyncrasy 
and  fate. 

[Plato  inclines  to  the  Spartan  form  of  civilization,  and  would 

have  strict  control  exercised  by  wise  men  in  power.    Aristotle 

inclined  to  the  direction  of  greater  individualism,  and  his  views 

are  approximately  those  of  the  present  day.] 

§  215.  The  complete  dissolution  of  the  principle  of 
aesthetic  individuality  takes  place  when  the  individual, 
in  the  decay  of  public  life,  in  the  disappearance  of  all 
beautiful  morality,  isolates  himself,  and  seeks  to  gain  in 
his  isolation  such  strength  that  he  can  bear  the  changes 
of  fortune  with  composure  —  "ataraxy."  The  Stoics 
sought  to  attain  this  end  by  turning  their  attention  in- 
ward into  pure  internality,  and  thus,  by  preserving  the 
self-determination  of  abstract  thinking  and  willing, 
maintaining  their  equanimity :  the  Epicureans  endeav- 
ored to  do  the  same,  with  this  difference,  however,  that 
they  strove  after  a  positive  satisfaction  of  the  senses  by 
filling  them  with  concrete  pleasurable  sensations.  As  a 
consequence  of  this,  the  Stoics  withdrew  from  practical 
life  in  order  to  maintain  their  independence  of  external 
conditions,  and  to  preserve  their  mental  quiet  unbroken. 
The  Epicureans  lived  in  companies,  because  they  height- 
ened the  results  of  their  pleasure  -  seeking  principle 
through  harmony  of  f  eeling  and  through  the  sweetness 
of  friendship.  In  so  far  the  Epicureans  were  Greeks 
and  the  Stoics  Romans.  "With  both,  however,  the  beauty 
of  manifestation  was  secondary  to  the  immobility  of  the 
inner  feeling.  The  plastic  union  of  the  good  and  the 


228      PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

beautiful  was  destroyed  by  the  extremes  of  thinking  and 
feeling.  This  was  the  advent  of  the  Eoman  principle 
among  the  Greeks. 

[With  the  principle  of  Stoicism  the  Greek  has  finally  deserted 
the  aesthetic  standpoint  and  arrived  at  the  Roman  principle.  To 
be  imperturbable  ("ataraxy")  in  the  midst  of  calamity  is  the 
object  of  both  Stoics  and  Epicureans.  The  former  strives,  by 
cultivating  his  will  through  self-denial  and  his  intellect  through 
reflection,  to  build  for  himself  a  world  in  the  depths  of  his  soul 
secure  from  external  events.  The  Epicurean  seeks  to  make  the 
most  of  the  world  as  it  actually  is,  and  to  make  sure  of  happiness, 
but  he  takes  care  to  hold  his  feelings  under  restraint,  and,  like  the 
Stoic,  to  create  his  happiness  by  thinking  and  willing.] 

§  216.  The  educational  significance  of  Stoicism  and 
Epicureanism  consists  in  this,  that,  after  the  public 
moral  life  was  sundered  from  the  private,  the  individual 
began  to  educate  himself,  through  philosophical  culture, 
into  stability  of  character,  for  which  reason  the  Eoman 
emperors  particularly  disliked  the  Stoics.  At  many 
times,  a  devotion  to  the  Stoic  philosophy  was  sufficient 
to  make  one  suspected.  But,  at  last,  a  noble  emperor, 
in  order  to  win  himself  a  hold  in  the  chaos  of  things, 
was  forced  himself  to  become  a  Stoic,  and  took  refuge 
in  the  inaccessible  calm  of  the  depths  of  thought  occu- 
pied in  reflecting  on  its  own  nature,  and  of  the  will  en- 
gaged in  restraining  itself  by  ethical  maxims.  Stoics 
and  Epicureans  both  had  what  we  call  an  ideal.  The 
Stoics  used  for  this  ideal  the  expression,  "  kingdom " ; 
as  Horace  says,  sarcastically,  "Sapiens  est  rex  nisi — 
pituita  molesta  est." 

[With  Stoicism  and  Epicureanism,  education  assumes  a  new 
significance,  because  both  depend  on  careful  training  of  intellect 
and  will.  The  early  stages  of  Greek  life  were  spontaneous ;  edu- 
cation simply  enjoined  the  following  of  blind  custom.  Heredi- 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.          229 

tary  instincts  rendered  it  all  easy  and  natural.  Greece  came 
under  Roman  power,  and  this  contradiction  between  native 
Greek  customs  and  the  course  of  educated  thought  and  feeling 
became  very  marked.  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  Stoic  emperor, 
whose  "  Meditations  "  we  prize  so  much,  rendered  Stoicism  ac- 
ceptable with  the  government  of  Rome.] 


CHAPTER  V. 

SYSTEM   OF   INDIVIDUAL   EDUCATION   (continued). 

II.  Practical  Education. 

§  217.  THE  outcome  of  the  dissolution  of  the  beau- 
tiful individuality  is  the  earnest  individuality  that  di- 
rects all  its  labor  to  the  achievement  of  purposes  useful 
to  the  state,  which,  on  the  one  hand,  considers  carefully 
end  and  means,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  seeks  to  realize 
the  end  through  the  corresponding  means,  and  in  this 
effort  subordinates  mere  beauty  of  form  to  usefulness. 
The  practical  individuality  is  therefore  directed  to  the 
achievement  of  an  external  object,  since  it  is  not  its  own 
purpose  like  the  beautiful,  as  it  was  even  in  the  case  of 
the  Stoics  and  Epicureans,  but  has  an  external  object, 
and  finds  its  satisfaction  not  so  much  in  this  after  it  is 
attained  as  in  the  striving  for  its  attainment. 

[The  Eoman  makes  usefulness  rather  than  beauty  the  supreme 
end.  He  looks  upon  things  and  events  as  means  to  ends.  But 
the  end  or  object  for  which  all  things,  even  the  lives  of  individ- 
uals, are  means,  is  Rome.  While  the  individuality  of  the  Greek 
is  educated  for  beauty,  and  hence  for  its  own  culture  and  not  for 
an  external  end  and  aim,  the  Eoman  individuality  is  educated 
for  the  preservation  and  prosperity  of  the  state.  But  in  this 


230  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

we  must  not  forget  that  the  Roman  differs  from  the  Persian 
who  is  educated  for  the  conquest  of  boundaries  and  the  extension 
of  the  sway  of  the  nation.  The  Persian  does  not  distinguish  be- 
tween the  state  in  the  abstract  and  the  king  in  the  concrete. 
But  Romans  always  make  this  distinction,  and  never  confound 
the  abstract  sovereignty  to  which  all  owe  their  lives  and  prop- 
erty with  individuals  in  authority.  Even  the  most  absolute  dic- 
tator is  simply  a  means  and  not  an  end ;  he  must  "  see  that  the 
republic  does  not  suffer  detriment."  Therefore  it  is  that  the 
Roman  education  is  an  "  individual  system,"  and  not  a  one-sided 
"active"  or  "passive"  system.  The  historical  myths  and  le- 
gends relate  that  Rome  was  settled  by  fugitives  and  outlaws  on 
the  border-land  of  the  Sabines,  the  Latins,  and  the  Etruscans. 
This  colluvies,  as  Livy  calls  it,  the  dregs  of  the  surrounding 
peoples,  must  unite  for  its  own  safety,  and  form  a  govern- 
ment on  a  .purely  artificial  basis.  All  other  nations  had  united 
on  a  religious  basis.  But  these  peoples  had  different  religions 
and  different  manners  and  customs.  The  political  bond,  pure  and 
simple,  is  set  up  as  the  highest.  It  becomes  the  object  of  religion 
in  fact.  Another  interesting  feature  is  the  fact  that  compact  or 
contract  is  the  essence  of  the  Roman  spiritual  life.  Founded 
not  on  religion,  but  on  mutual  agreement  for  common  safety,  the 
Roman  state  exists  as  a  sort  of  higher  will  of  each  individual. 
Two  or  more  wills  unite  and  consolidate  in  a  sort  of  higher,  re- 
sultant will.  Such  is  a  contract.  To  sum  up  Roman  education 
in  a  word,  one  may  say  that  his  idea  of  the  all-importance  of  a 
contract  and  the  implicit  obedience  which  the  individual  should 
render  it,  is  the  great  educative  influence  always  present  with 
the  Roman  in  the  republic.  On  the  basis  of  this  idea  arises  the 
noble  patriotism  which  the  citizen  displays  when  he  offers  up 
his  life  and  property  for  the  safety  and  honor  of  Rome.  On  the 
same  basis  arises  the  opposite  feeling  of  private  right,  the  intense 
enjoyment  of  private  property,  and  the  network  of  civil  laws 
which  protect  it.  The  Roman  unites  in  his  consciousness  these 
two  antithetic  notions :  (a)  utter  devotion  of  life  and  property 
for  the  state;  (b)  absolute  freedom  and  independence  within  the 
limits  of  his  private  property.  In  his  mind  he  reconciles  and 
adjusts  these  two  relations — the  one  for  Rome,  the  other  for  him- 
self. This  makes  the  Roman  character  peculiar  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  There  is  this  dualism  in  it.] 


THE  SYSTEM  OP  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.          231 

§  218.  The  education  of  this  system  begins  with 
strict  simplicity.  But,  after  it  has  attained  its  object, 
it  gives  itself  up  to  the  pursuit  of  aesthetic  culture  as  a 
recreation,  not  for  the  sake  of  producing  works  of  art, 
but  in  order  to  enjoy  them  and  without  any  further  ob- 
ject. "What  was  to  the  Greeks  a  real  delight  in  the 
beautiful  became  therefore  with  the  Eomans  simply  an 
aesthetic  amusement,  and  as  such  must  finally  become 
wearisome.  The  Eoman  earnestness  of  individuality 
made  for  t  itself  a  new  object  in  mysticism,  which  was 
distinguished  from  the  original  one  in  that  it  concealed 
in  itself  a  mystery  and  exacted  an  activity  that  was 
partly  theoretical  and  partly  ascetic. 

[^Esthetic  culture,  which  was  religion  with  the  Greeks,  there- 
fore becomes  mere  idle  amusement  with  the  Romans.  There 
are  three  epochs  in  Roman  education :  (1)  the  strictly  simple  edu- 
cation of  the  republic;  (2)  the  education  for  amusement  and 
the  enjoyment  of  fine  arts ;  (3)  the  education  into  secret  rites 
and  mysteries  which  took  place  in  the  latter  days,  when  the 
special  religions  of  all  nations  had  been  mingled,  and  a  tendency 
to  eclecticism  prevailed.] 

§  219.  (1)  The  first  epoch  of  Roman  education,  as 
properly  Koman,  was  the  juristic-military  education  of 
the  republic.  The  end  and  aim  of  the  Roman  was 
Rome ;  and  Rome,  as  from  the  beginning  an  eclectic 
state,  could  endure  only  through  the  adaptation  of  its 
laws  and  external  politics  to  hold  together  the  composite 
elements  of  the  nation,  and  subordinate  each  interest  to 
the  interest  of  the  whole.  It  bore  the  same  contradic- 
tion within  itself  as  in  its  external  attitude.  The  latter 
forced  it  into  an  attitude  of  violence  against  neighboring 
nations ;  the  plebeians  were  likewise  opposed  to  the  pa- 
tricians in  the  same  attitude  of  violence,  for  they  robbed 


232  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

them  gradually  of  all  their  privileges.  On  this  account 
education  directed  itself  partly  to  giving  a  knowledge 
of  the  law,  partly  to  training  for  war.  The  boys  were 
obliged  to  commit  to  memory  and  recite  the  laws  of  the 
Twelve  Tables,  and  all  the  young  men  were  subject  to 
military  service.  The  Roman  possessed  no  individuality 
of  native  growth,  but  one  formed  through  the  inter- 
mingling of  various  national  stocks ;  fugitives  collecting 
on  the  Roman  hills  furnishing  the  population.  This 
developed  a  very  great  energy.  Hence  from  the  first 
he  was  attentive  to  his  own  conduct ;  he  watched  jeal- 
ously over  the  limits  that  bounded  his  rights  from  the 
rights  of  others,  measured  his  strength,  moderated  him- 
self, and  constantly  guarded  himself.  In  contrast  with 
the  careless  cheerfulness  of  the  Greeks,  he  therefore  ap- 
pears gloomy. 

The  Latin  tongue  is  crowded  with  expressions  which  paint  pres- 
ence of  mind,  effort  at  reflection,  a  critical  attitude  of  mind,  the  im- 
portance of  personal  control :  as  gravitas  morum,  sui  compos  esse, 
sibi  constare,  austeritas,  vir  strenuus,  vir  probus,  vitam  honestam 
gerere,  sibimet  ipse  imperare,  etc.  The  Etruscan  element  imparted 
to  this  earnestness  a  peculiarly  stiff,  ceremonial,  solemn  character. 
The  Roman  was  no  longer,  like  the  Greek,  unembarrassed  in  the 
presence  of  naturalness.  He  was  ashamed  of  nudity;  verecundia, 
pudor,  were  genuinely  Roman.  Vitam  prceferre  pudori  was  disgrace- 
ful. On  the  contrary,  the  Greek  gave  to  Greeks  a  festival  in  exhibit- 
ing the  splendor  of  his  naked  body,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Crotona 
erected  a  statue  to  Philip  solely  because  he  was  perfectly  beautiful, 
Simply  to  be  beautiful,  only  beautiful,  was  enough  for  the  Greek. 
But  a  Roman,  in  order  to  be  recognized,  must  have  done  something 
for  Rome :  se  bene  de  republica  mereri. 

[Rome,  being  an  eclectic  state,  could  exist  only  by  subordinat- 
ing all  interests  to  the  supreme  one  of  the  safety  of  the  state. 
The  individual  may  cherish  all  other  interests  as  private  inter- 
ests, but  must  not  allow  them  to  interfere  with  the  public  cause. 
Here,  for  the  first  time,  is  freedom  of  the  individual  in  such 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.          233 

matters  as  manners  and  customs  and  modes  of  religious  worship 
that  were  peculiar  to  the  separate  tribes  which  united  to  form 
Rome.  Each  family  had  its  own  "  household  gods."  Strange, 
too,  we  find  ancestor-worship  in  Rome  in  almost  as  pure  a  form 
as  it  exists  in  China.  It  seems  to  have  been  arrested  in  its  de- 
velopment by  the  establishment  of  an  artificial  abstraction,  the 
republic  as  absolute.  Education  had  to  make  the  youth  ac- 
quainted with  the  written  law  of  the  "  Twelve  Tables,"  which 
recited  the  fundamental  limitations  of  private  freedom  and  pos- 
session that  are  rendered  necessary  to  secure  the  public  weal. 
These  laws  concerned  chiefly  the  forms  of  transference  of  proper- 
ty and  the  forms  of  recovery.  The  individuality  of  the  Roman  is 
realized  in  private  property  through  the  fact  that  the  supreme 
power,  political  and  religious,  re-enforces  his  private  will  and 
protects  it  in  its  rights  within  the  limits  prescribed  in  the  code 
of  laws.  Private  ownership  in  this  sense  is  a  participation  on 
the  part  of  the  particular  will  of  the  individual  in  the  universal 
or  collective  will  of  the  state.  The  other  side  of  education  was 
the  preparation  for  military  service. 

Most  remarkable  is  the  vocabulary  of  Latin  words  expressing 
the  gravity,  soberness,  austerity,  probity,  honesty,  self-restraint, 
composed  manners,  etc.,  of  this  people.  His  (the  Roman's)  mind 
is  divided  between  the  private  and  the  public  interests,  and 
always  under  a  sort  of  constraint — never  spontaneous  and  free 
like  the  Greek  in  early  ages  before  Greek  philosophy  had  super- 
induced reflection.  All  modern  peoples  that  have  entered  civili- 
zation inherit  from  Rome  this  double  consciousness  of  the  self 
and  the  public  interest,  but  not  in  the  contradictory  form  which 
it  once  assumed.  Christianity  solved  its  contradiction  by  giving 
to  it  an  infinite  ground  in  the  doctrine  of  the  divine-human  and 
of  the  atonement.] 

§  220.  In  the  first  education  of  children  the  Eoman 
mother  was  especially  influential,  so  that  woman  with 
the  Eomans  took  generally  a  more  moral,  a  higher,  and 
a  freer  position.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that,  while  the 
beautiful  woman  set  the  Greeks  at  variance,  among  the 
Eomans,  through  her  ethical  authority,  she  acted  as 
reconciler. 


234  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

[Woman  in  Greece  as  the  ideal  of  the  beautiful  in  the  person 
of  Helen  set  states  at  variance.  In  Rome  the  daughters  of  the 
Sabines,  stolen  by  the  Romans,  reconciled  the  conflicting  armies. 
In  Rome  woman  took  a  higher  and  freer  position.] 

§  221.  The  mother  of  the  Roman  helped  to  form 
his  character ;  the  father  undertook  the  work  of  instruc- 
tion. "When,  in  his  fifteenth  year,  the  boy  exchanged 
the  toga  prcetextata  for  the  toga  virilis,  he  was  usually 
sent  to  some  relative,  or  to  some  respectable  jurist,  as 
his  guardian,  to  learn  thoroughly,  under  his  guidance, 
the  laws  and  political  usages  of  the  state ;  with  the  sev- 
enteenth year  began  military  service.  All  education  was 
for  a  long  time  entirely  a  private  affair.  On  account  of 
the  necessity  of  the  mechanical  unity  which  war  demands 
in  its  evolutions,  the  greatest  stress  was  laid  upon  obe- 
dience. In  its  restricted  sense  instruction  was  given 
in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic ;  the  last  being,  on 
account  of  its  usefulness,  more  esteemed  by  the  Romans 
than  by  the  Greeks,  who  gave  more  time  to  geometry. 
The  schools,  very  characteristically,  were  called  Ludi^ 
because  their  work  was,  in  distinction  from  other  o'ccu- 
pations,  regarded  simply  as  a  recreation,  as  play. 

The  Roman  recognized  with  pride  this  distinction  between  the 
Greek  and  himself ;  Cicero's  introduction  to  his  "  Essay  on  Oratory  " 
expresses  it.  To  be  practical  was  the  one  result  aimed  at  by  the 
reflective  character  of  the  Romans,  which  was  always  proposing 
to  itself  new  objects  and  seeking  the  means  for  their  attainment ; 
which  loved  moderation,  not  to  secure  beauty  thereby,  but  respected 
it  as  a  means  for  a  happy  success  (medium  tenuere  leati) ;  which  did 
not  possess  serene  self-limitation,  or  crooQpoo-vvr],  but  rather  carefully 
estimated  quid  valeant  humeri,  quid  ferre  recusent ;  but  which,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  went  far  beyond  the  Greeks  in  persistency  of  will, 
in  constantia  animi.  The  schools  were  at  first  held  publicly  in 
booths  at  the  intersection  of  streets ;  hence  the  name  trivium.  Very 
significant  for  the  Roman  is  the  predicate  which  he  conferred  upon 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.          235 

theoretical  subjects  when  he  called  them  artes  bonce,  optimce,  liber Or 
les,  ingenues,  etc.,  and  brought  forth  the  practical  element  in  them 
(their  relation  to  the  will). 

[The  influence  of  the  Koman  mother  over  her  son  is  well 
portrayed  in  Shakespeare's  "  Coriolanus."  At  fifteen  the  Roman 
youth  studied  the  laws ;  at  seventeen  entered  the  army.  Obedi- 
ence emphasized.  Branches  of  study.  Schools  called  by  the 
Romans  places  for  sport  and  recreation  (ludi) ;  by  Greeks,  places 
of  leisure  (<rx<>\^).  The  difference  between  the  Roman  and  the 
Greek  in  the  matter  of  self-possession  of  individuality;  the 
Roman  has  constancy  of  purpose ;  the  Greek,  serene  self -limita- 
tion, i.  e.,  moderation  and  self-control  in  his  reaction  against 
impulses  and  external  incitements.] 

§  222.  (2)  But  the  practical  education  could  no 
longer  keep  its  ground  after  it  had  become  acquainted 
with  the  aesthetic.  The  conquest  of  Greece,  Asia  Minor, 
and  Egypt  made  necessary,  in  a  practical  point  of  view, 
the  acquisition  of  the  Grecian  tongue,  so  that  these 
lands,  so  permeated  with  Grecian  culture,  might  be 
governed  effectively.  The  Roman  of  family  and  prop- 
erty, therefore,  took  into  his  service  Greek  nurses  and 
teachers  who  should  give  to  his  children,  from  their 
earliest  years,  instruction  in  the  Greek  tongue.  It  is 
the  first  instance  in  the  history  of  education  in  which 
a  nation  has  undertaken  to  teach  a  foreign  tongue  to  its 
youth. 

Moreover,  the  usefulness  of  it  in  political  and  other 
affairs  caused  the  study  of  Greek  rhetoric,  so  that  not 
only  in  the  deliberations  of  the  senate  and  in  the  assem- 
blies of  the  people,  but  in  pleadings  before  the  courts, 
the  Eoman  citizen  might  gain  his  cause  by  its  aid. 
Whatever  effort  the  Koman  government  made  to  pre- 
vent the  invasion  of  the  Greek  rhetorician  was  all  in 

vain.    The  Eoman  youth  sought  this  very  useful  knowl- 
23 


236  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

edge  even  abroad,  e.  g.,  in  the  flourishing  school  of  rhet- 
oric on  the  island  of  Rhodes. 

At  last,  even  the  study  of  philosophy  commended 
itself  to  the  practical  Roman,  in  order  that  he  might 
obtain  consolation  amid  the  disappointments  of  life. 
When  his  practical  activities  did  not  bring  him  any  re- 
sult, he  devoted  himself  in  his  poverty  to  abstract  con- 
templation. The  Greeks  desired  philosophy  for  its  own 
sake ;  the  ataraxy  of  the  Stoics,  Epicureans,  and  skeptics 
even  wished  to  be  considered  the  result  of  a  necessary 
principle ;  but  the  Roman,  on  the  contrary,  wished  to 
lift  himself  by  philosophemes  above  trouble  and  mis- 
fortune. 

This  direction  which  philosophy  took  is  noteworthy,  not  alone 
in  Cicero  and  Seneca,  but  at  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  when 
Boethius  wrote  in  prison  his  immortal  work  on  the  "  Consolation  of 
Philosophy." 

[After  the  conquest  of  Greece  and  the  necessary  introduction 
of  the  study  of  the  Greek  language  in  order  to  rule  Egypt,  Asia, 
and  places  where  that  language  had  been  carried  by  the  Alex- 
andrian conquests,  the  Roman  education  changes  rapidly,  and 
introduces  literary  studies.  The  useful  art  of  rhetoric,  so  neces- 
sary to  the  politician  and  the  barrister,  initiated  this  change. 
Greek  teachers  of  rhetoric  taught  the  most  eminent  Roman 
politicians.  Apollonius  of  Rhodes  taught  both  Cicero  and 
Cffisar.  Afterward  the  poets  and  historians,  and  finally  the 
philosophy  of  Greece,  came  to  be  studied.] 

§  223.  The  earnestness  which  pursued  a  definite  ob- 
ject degenerated  into  its  opposite.  .^The  idleness  of  the 
wealthy  Eoman,  who  felt  himself  to  be  the  lord  of  a 
world  without  limits,  led  to  desire  for  enjoyment  and 
dissipation,  which,  in  its  entire  want  of  moderation, 
abused  Nature.  The  most  elegant  form  of  the  educa- 
tion that  became  prevalent  at  this  period  was  that  in 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.          237 

belles-lettres ',  which,  also  for  the  first  time  came  to  belong 
to  the  sphere  of  education.  There  had  been  a  degenera- 
tion of  art  in  India  and  Greece,  but  never  an  artistic  tri- 
fling. But  in  Rome  there  arose  a  pursuit  of  art  in  order 
to  win  a  certain  consideration  in  social  position,  and  to 
create  a  species  of  recreation  adapted  to  the  enmd  of  a 
soul  satiated  with  sensual  debauchery.  Such  a  treatment 
of  art  is  unworthy,  for  it  no  longer  recognizes  its  inde- 
pendent significance,  but  subordinates  it  as  a  means  to 
personal  gratification.  Literary  salons  then  appear. 

In  the  introduction  to  his  "  Catiline,"  Sallust  has  painted  excel- 
lently this  complete  revolution  in  the  Roman  education.  The 
younger  Pliny  in  his  letters  furnishes  ample  material  to  illustrate  for 
us  this  pursuit  of  belles-lettres.  In  Nero  it  became  insanity.  We 
should  transgress  our  prescribed  limits  did  we  enter  here  into  par- 
ticulars. Its  analysis  shows  the  perversion  of  the  aesthetic  into  the 
practical,  the  aesthetic  losing  thereby  its  proper  nature.  But  the 
Roman  could  not  avoid  this  perversion,  because,  according  to  his 
original  tendency,  he  could  not  move  except  toward  the  utile  et  ho- 
nestum. 

[Mere  literature,  as  means  of  amusement,  and  trifling  with 
matters  of  art,  now  entered  the  education  of  the  idle  Roman 
possessed  of  wealth.  He  did  not  attain  the  genuine  aesthetic,  but 
rather  destroyed  it  by  perverting  its  aim  to  mere  amusement. 
The  Greek  had  produced  it  in  a  religious  mood.  The  Roman 
enjoyed  it  as  an  idle  pastime.] 

§  224.  (3)  But  this  pursuit  of  fine  art,  this  mere 
showy  display,  must  at  last  weary  the  Roman.  He 
sought  for  himself  an  object  to  which  he  could  devote 
himself  again  with  some  degree  of  exertion.  His  do- 
minion over  the  world  was  assured,  and  conquest  as  an 
object  could  no  more  charm  him.  National  religion 
had  fallen  with  the  destruction  of  the  national  indi- 
vidualities. The  soul  looked  out  over  its  political  life 
into  an  empty  void.  It  sought  to  establish  a  relation 


238  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

between  itself  and  another  world  filled  with  imaginary 
spiritual  powers.  In  place  of  the  depreciated  nationality 
and  its  religion  there  enters  the  eclecticism  of  mystic 
orders.  There  had  been,  it  is  true,  here  and  there,  in 
national  religions  certain  secret  signs,  rites,  words,  and 
meanings ;  but  now,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
the  world,  there  appeared  secret  organizations  as  edu- 
cational societies,  which  concerned  themselves  only  with 
the  private  individual  and  were  indifferent  to  nation- 
ality. Everything  had  been  profaned  by  the  roughness 
of  violence.  They  believed  no  longer  in  the  old  gods, 
and  the  superstitious  faith  in  ghosts  and  evil  spirits  be- 
came only  a  thing  fit  to  frighten  children  with.  Thus 
they  took  refuge  in  secrecy,  which  for  "blase  men  had  a 
piquant  charm. 

[When  the  Roman  Empire  had  conquered  the  world,  she  had 
at  the  same  time  destroyed  the  peculiar  idiosyncrasy  of  the  city 
of  Rome  which  made  it  politically  sacred.  The  rights  of  citizen- 
ship were  conferred  by  the  emperors  on  the  inhabitants  of  cities 
in  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  peculiar  religions  of  the  con- 
quered nations  were  adopted  and  recognized  and  their  gods  trans- 
ported to  Rome  and  set  up  in  the  Pantheon.  Such  toleration 
of  all  religions  enforced  on  the  peoples  composing  the  Empire 
necessarily  sapped  the  foundations  of  religious  education  and 
caused  a  wide-spread  indifference  as  to  sacred  matters.  One 
set  of  heathen  gods  is  just  as  good  as  another,  and  neither  of 
them  receives  the  worship  of  the  educated  Roman.  Accord- 
ingly, the  religious  sentiment  takes  refuge  in  a  sort  of  mystic 
pantheism,  using  especially  Persian  and  Egyptian  forms.  The 
worship  of  Mithras  and  Isis  became  common.] 

§  225.  The  education  of  the  mysteries  was  twofold, 
theoretical  and  practical.  In  the  theoretical  we  find  a 
regular  gradation  of  symbols  and  symbolical  acts  through 
which  one  seemed  gradually  to  approach  the  revelation 
of  the  secret ;  the  practical  contained  a  regular  grada- 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  INDIVIDUAL  EDUCATION.          239 

tion  of  ascetic  actions  [disciplinary  training]  alternating 
with  an  abandonment  to  wild  orgies.  These  two  forms 
of  education  elevated  one  from  the  rank  of  the  novice 
to  that  of  the  initiated.  The  degrees  of  the  orders 
formed  an  instrumentality  for  the  development  of  ethi- 
cal growth,  and  this  form  has  been  retained  in  the  edu- 
cation of  all  such  secret  worship,  mutatis  mutandis, 
down  to  the  Illuminati. 

In  the  Roman  Empire,  its  Persian  element  was  the  worship  of 
Mithras;  its  Egyptian,  that  of  Isis ;  its  Grecian,  the  Pythagorean 
doctrines.    All  these  three,  however,  were  much  mingled  with  each 
other.    The  Roman  legions,  who  really  no  longer  had  any  native 
country,  spread  these  artificial  religions  throughout  the  whole  world. 
The  breaking  away  from  established  forms  led  often  to  clairvoyance, 
which  was  not  yet  understood,  and  to  belief  in  miracles.    Apollonius 
of  Tyana,  the  messiah  of  heathenism,  is  the  principal  figure  in  this 
group ;  and,  in  comparison  with  him,  Jamblichus  appears  only  as  an 
enthusiast,  and  Alexander  of  Abonoteichus  as  an  ordinary  impostor. 
[Secret  societies  with  graded  symbolism  and  secret  initiations 
celebrated  the  esoteric  or  inner  meaning  which  was  supposed  to 
underlie  all  religions,  especially  the   Persian   and   Egyptian. 
Those  who  seized  the  deep  meaning  called  themselves  the  illu- 
minated.    In  1776  Adam  Weishaupt  founded  the  Illuminati  re- 
ferred to  in  the  text.    Apollonius  of  Tyana  (A.  D.  30-70)  collected 
a  mass  of  doctrines  from  the  East,  resembling  what  passes  for 
"esoteric  Buddhism"  or  "theosophy"  in  our  literature  of  1886. 
Jamblichus  was  an  extravagant  Neo-Platonist,  holding  the  doc- 
trines of  the  pre-existence  of  the  soul  and  the  descent  of  creation 
by  a  lapse  ("  fall "  or  degradation)  from  the  Absolute.     Alex- 
ander of  Abonoteichus  (in  Paphlagonia),  a  notorious  sorcerer, 
about  the  middle  of  the  second  century  A.  D.,  who  gave  himself 
out  for  a  prophet.     His  life  was  written  by  Lucian.] 

III.  Abstract  Individual  Education. 

§  226.  What  the  declining  nations  in  their  despair 
sought  for  in  these  mysteries  was  individuality,  which 


24:0  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

in  its  special  singularity  is  conscious  of  the  universality 
of  the  rational  world  of  institutions  as  its  own  essence. 
This  individuality  existed  more  immediately  in  the  Ger- 
manic race,  but,  nevertheless,  on  account  of  its  peculiar 
nature,  it  attained  its  true  actualization  first  in  Christian- 
ity. It  can  be  here  only  pointed  out  that  the  Germanic 
people  most  thoroughly,  in  opposition  to  Nature,  to  men, 
and  to  the  gods,  felt  themselves  to  be  independent,  as 
Tacitus  says,  "  Securi  adversus  homines,  securi  adversus 
Deos"  This  individuality,  which  had  for  its  object 
only  itself,  must  necessarily  be  destroyed,  and  was  saved 
only  by  Christianity,  which  overcame  and  enlightened 
its  daemonic  and  defiant  spirit.  We  can  not  speak  here 
of  a  system  of  education.  Respect  for  personality,  the 
free  acknowledgment  of  the  claims  of  woman,  the  loy- 
alty to  the  leader  chosen  by  themselves,  loyalty  to  their 
chosen  companions  (the  idea  of  comradeship) — these 
features  all  deserve  to  be  well  noted,  because  from  them 
arose  the  feudalism  of  the  middle  ages.  What  Csesar 
and  Tacitus  tell  us  of  the  education  of  the  Germans  ex- 
presses only  the  free  play  allowed  itself  by  individuality, 
which  in  its  rudimentary  savage  state  had  no  other  form 
in  which  to  manifest  itself  than  wars  of  conquest. 

To  the  Roman  there  was  something  daemonic  in  the  German. 
He  perceived  dimly  in  him  his  future,  his  master.  When  the  Ro- 
mans first  met  the  Cimbri  and  Teutons  in  the  field,  their  commander 
had  to  accustom  them  gradually  to  the  fearful  sight  of  the  wild, 
giant-like  forms. 

[The  individualism  of  the  Germanic  race  is  called  "  abstract " 
by  Rosenkranz  because  that  race  loved  individuality  pure  and 
simple.  They  cared  neither  for  men  nor  gods,  having  that  in- 
toxication of i  bravery  which  utter  desperation  gives.  The  Ger- 
manic individuality  is  here  called  demonic  (not  demonic},  in  the 
Greek  sense  of  "possessed  by  a  spirit."  It  is  a  sort  of  madness 


THE   SYSTEM   OF  THEOCRATIC   EDUCATION.          241 

or  frenzy — the  Berserker  rage,  described  in  Kingsley's  "  Hypa- 
tia,"  as  possessing  the  Norsemen  in  battle.  (See  §  203.)  They 
had  loyalty  to  their  friends  and  leaders,  and  acknowledged  the 
claims  of  woman.  The  tragedy  of  Brunhild  in  the  old  Norse 
Edda  shows  how  deeply  prophetic  was  their  sentiment  regarding 
woman.] 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    SYSTEM   OF   THEOCRATIC    EDUCATION. 

§  227.  THE  system  of  national  education  was  founded 
on  the  substantial  basis  of  the  family  institution ;  its 
second  phase  is  the  division  of  the  nation  by  means 
of  division  of  labor  which  it  makes  permanent  in 
castes ;  its  third  stage  presents  the  fre^e  antithesis  of  the 
laity  and  clergy ;  next  it  makes  war,  immortality,  and 
trade,  by  turns,  its  end ;  after  this,  it  sets  up  beauty, 
patriotic  duty,  and  the  immediateness  of  individuality, 
as  the  essence  of  human  nature ;  and  at  last  dissolves 
the  unity  of  nationality  in  the  consciousness  that  all 
nations  are  really  one  since  they  are  all  human  be- 
ings. In  the  intermixture  of  races  in  the  Horn  an  world 
arises  the  conception  of  the  human  race,  the  gmus  hu- 
manum.  Education  had  become  eclectic :  the  Eoman 
legions  leveled  the  national  distinctions.  In  the  waver- 
ing of  all  objective  morality,  the  necessity  of  self-edu- 
cation in  order  to  the  formation  of  character  appeared 
ever  more  and  more  clearly ;  but  the  conception,  which 
lay  at  the  foundation,  was  always,  nevertheless,  that  of 
Eoman,  Greek,  or  German  education.  But  in  the  midst 
of  these  nations  another  system  had  striven  for  develop- 


24:2  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS   tF  ElUCATIfN. 

ment,  and  this  did  not  base  itself  on  the  natural  bond  of 
nationality,  but  made  this,  for  the  first  time,  only  a  sec- 
ondary thing,  and  made  the  direct  relation  of  man  to 
God  its  chief  idea.  In  this  system  God  himself  is  the 
teacher.  He  manifests  to  man  his  will  as  law,  to  which 
he  must  unconditionally  conform,  for  no  other  reason 
than  that  he  is  the  Lord  and  man  is  his  servant  who  can 
have  no  other  will  than  His.  The  obedience  of  man  is, 
therefore,  in  this  system  mere  mechanical  submission  to 
authority,  until  through  experience  he  gradually  attains 
to  the  knowledge  that  the  will  * f  God  has  in  it  the  very 
essence  of  his  own  will.  Descent,  talent,  events,  work, 
beauty,  courage — all  these  are  indifferent  things  com- 
pared with  the  subjection  of  the  human  to  the  divine 
will.  To  believe  in  God  is  the  way  to  be  well-pleasing 
to  him.  Without  this  unity  with  God,  what  is  natural 
in  national  descent  is  of  no  value.  According  to  its 
form  of  manifestation,  Judaism  is  not  so  advanced  as 
the  Greek  spirit.  It  is  not  beautiful,  but  rather  gro- 
tesque. But  in  its  essence,  as  the  religion  of  the  con- 
tradiction between  the  absolute,  divine  ideal  and  the 
finite  and  the  imperfect  existence  of  the  world,  it  takes 
a  step  beyond  Nature,  which  it  perceives  to  be  created 
by  an  absolute,  conscious,  and  reasonable  will ;  while 
the  Greek  concealed  in  a  myth  concerning  the  birth  of 
Gaea,  his  mother-earth,  the  fact  of  the  dependence  of  all 
Nature  on  a  higher  source.  The  Jews  have  been  pre- 
served in  the  midst  of  all  other  civilizations  by  the  elas- 
tic power  of  the  thought  of  God  as  one  who  was  free 
from  the  control  of  Nature.  The  Jews  have  a  patriotism 
equal  to  that  of  the  Romans.  The  Maccabees,  for  ex- 
ample, were  not  inferior  to  the  Romans  in  greatness. 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  THE* CKATIC  EDUCATION.          243 

Abraham  is  the  genuine  Jew  because  he  is  the  genuinely  faith- 
ful man.  He  does  not  hesitate  to  obey  the  horrible  and  inhuman 
command  of  his  God.  Circumcision  was  made  the  token  of  the 
national  unity,  but  the  nation  may  assimilate  members  to  itself 
from  other  nations  through  this  rite.  The  essential  condition 
of  membership  in  the  chosen  people  always  lies  in  belief  in  a 
spiritual  relation  to  which  the  natural  relation  is  secondary.  The 
Jewish  nation  makes  proselytes,  and  these  are  widely  different 
from  the  Socii  of  the  Romans  or  the  Metoeci  (Merot/coi)  of  the 
Athenians. 

[Quite  in  contrast  to  the  "  individual "  education  is  the  sys- 
tem of  "  theocratic "  education.  The  "  unity  of  nationality  is 
dissolved  in  the  consciousness  that  all  nations  are  really  one 
since  they  are  all  human  beings."  This  refers  to  the  last  stage 
of  Roman  history.  The  Romans  had  conquered  all  nations  and 
imposed  upon  them  the  Roman  law  and  the  double  conscious- 
ness (above  described)  of  public  and  private  rights.  Upon  the 
conquest  of  a  new  country,  its  youth,  able  to  bear  arms,  were 
conscripted  into  the  army  and  sent  to  some  remote  part  of  the 
empire  where  they  were  opposed  to  a  foe  so  unlike  themselves  in 
language  and  customs  as  to  cause  them  to  cleave  loyally  to  the 
Roman  standard  as  the  only  means  of  self-preservation.  Be- 
sides, it  was  only  through  Rome  that  they  could  ever  hope  to 
hear  from  their  native  land  or  return  to  it.  By  this  plan  the 
conquered  peoples  became  thoroughly  intermingled  throughout 
the  army.  Those  who  fought  side  by  side  learned  to  respect 
each  other.  Slowly  there  arose  the  idea  of  the  genus  liumanum, 
the  idea  of  all  men  as  of  one  blood. 

While  this  leveling  of  national  distinctions  had  gone  on 
within  the  Roman  Empire,  there  arose  another  movement  paral- 
lel to  it,  but  in  the  deepest  recesses  of  the  human  spirit.  It  was 
the  theocratic  education  that  developed  the  idea  of  the  personal 
God,  who  is  not  a  special  limited  God,  but  the  God  of  all  people. 
While  Greek  poetry  is  beautiful,  Hebrew  poetry  is  sublime.  It 
presents  the  strong  contrast  between  a  Creator  of  infinite  power 
and  his  finite  works.  God  is  above  and  apart  from  all  Nature, 
The  Persian  makes  Ahura-Mazda  identical  with  the  natural 
element,  light.  But  the  Bible  says  that  light  was  created  by  a 
mere  word  of  the  Divine  Person.] 


244  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

§  228.  To  the  man  who  knows  Nature  to  be  the 
work  of  a  single,  transcendent,  rational  Creator,  she  loses 
independence.  He  is  negatively  freed  from  her  control, 
and  sees  in  her  only  a  means.  As  opposed  to  the  hea- 
then conceptions  richly  endowed  with  the  poetic  imagi- 
nation, this  seems  to  be  a  backward  step,  but  for  the 
emancipation  of  man  it  is  a  progress.  He  no  longer 
fears  Nature,  but  her  Lord,  and  admires  Him  so  much  in 
his  works  that  prose  rises  to  the  dignity  of  poetry  even 
in  this  teleological  contemplation  (which  celebrates  the 
purpose  of  Nature  rather  than  Nature  herself).  Since 
man  stands  above  Nature,  education  is  directed  to  morali- 
ty as  such,  and  expresses  itself  in  manifold  qualifications, 
by  means  of  which  the  distinction  of  man  from  Nature 
is  definitely  stated.  The  ceremonial  law  appears  often 
arbitrary,  but  in  its  prescribed  ceremonies  it  offers  man 
the  satisfaction  of  placing  himself  as  will  in  relation  to 
will  (human  will  in  relation  to  Absolute  Will).  For  ex- 
ample, if  he  is  forbidden  to  eat  any  specified  part  of  an 
animal,  the  ground  of  this  command  is  not  merely  nat- 
ural (i.  e.,  based  on  hygienic  reasons) — it  is  the  will 
of  the  Deity.  Man  learns,  therefore,  in  his  obedience 
to  such  directions,  to  free  himself  from  his  self-will, 
from  his  natural  appetites.  This  thorough  renunciation 
of  mere  subjectivity  (selfishness)  is  the  beginning  of 
wisdom,  the  purification  of  the  will  from  all  individual 
egotism. 

The  Decalogue  contains  the  rational  substance  of  the  law  ex- 
pressed for  all  time.  Many  of  our  modern  much-admired  authors 
exhibit  a  superficiality  bordering  on  shallowness  when  they  confine 
their  comments  to  the  absurdity  of  the  miracles,  and  omit  all  notice 
of  the  profound  depth  of  the  moral  struggle  of  the  Jewish  people, 
and  fail  to  see  the  practical  rationality  of  the  ten  commandments. 


THE  SYSTEM   OF  THEOCRATIC  EDUCATION.          245 

[When  a  religion  teaches  man  that  Nature  is  only  a  created 
object,  and  that  the  Creator  is  a  conscious  person,  he  does  not 
any  longer  worship  forces  and  material  forms,  but  sees  in  them 
only  a  means  for  the  realization  of  spiritual  ends.  With  such  a 
belief  education  is  directed  toward  what  is  ethical.  In  obeying 
the  "  law "  man  obeys  the  will  of  deity  and  not  a  mere  blind 
necessity  of  unconscious  Nature.] 

§  229.  Education  in  this  theocratical  system  is  in 
one  respect  patriarchal.  The  family  is  very  prominent, 
because  it  is  considered  to  be  a  great  happiness  for 
the  individual  to  belong  from  his  earliest  life  to  the 
company  of  those  who  believe  in  the  true  God.  In 
another  respect  it  is  hierarchical,  inasmuch  as  its  cere- 
monial law  develops  a  special  function,  to  be  filled  by 
those  whose  duty  it  is  to  see  that  obedience  is  paid  to 
its  multifarious  regulations.  And,  because  these  are 
often  perfectly  arbitrary,  education  must,  above  all,  see 
that  they  are  committed  to  memory  so  thoroughly  that 
they  may  always  be  remembered.  The  Jewish  mono- 
theism shares  this  necessity  with  the  superstition  of  hea- 
thenism. 

[In  the  theocratic  system  education  is  at  first  patriarchal  be- 
cause the  family  is  the  link  that  connects  the  individual  with 
the  faithful  chosen  people.  Secondly,  the  education  is  provided 
by  the  priests  who  have  to  preserve  the  ceremonial  law  in  its 
purity,  and  see  to  its  observance.  What  is  prescribed  by  divine 
command  must  be  committed  to  memory ;  hence  the  tendency  in 
this  species  of  education  to  exclusive  cultivation  of  the  memory.] 

§  230.  But  the  technique  proper  of  the  ceremonial 
mechanism  is  not  the  most  important  educational  ele- 
ment of  the  theocracy.  We  find  this  in  its  historical 
significance,  since  its  history  throughout  has  an  educa- 
tional character.  For  the  people  of  God  show  us  always, 
in  their  intercourse  with  Him,  a  progress  from  the  ex- 


216  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

ternal  to  the  internal,  from  the  lower  to  the  higher, 
from  the  past  to  the  future.     Their  history,  therefore, 
abounds  in  situations  very  interesting  in  an  educational 
point  of  view,  and  in  characters  which  are  eternal  models. 
[To  the  command  to  obey  is  added  a  promise  of  material  pros- 
perity and  a  threat  of  punishment.     The  history  of  the  chosen 
people  shows  a  gradual  progress  away  from  the  state  of  mind 
which  looks  to  material  reward  for  obeying  spiritual  laws.] 

§  231.  (1)  The  will  of  God  as  the  absolute  authority 
is  at  first  to  this  people,  as  law,  external.  But  soon  God 
adds  to  the  command  to  obedience,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
inducement  of  a  promise  of  material  prosperity,  and  on 
the  other  hand  the  threat  of  material  punishment.  The 
fulfillment  of  the  law  is  also  encouraged  by  reflection 
on  the  profit  which  it  brings.  But,  since  these  motives 
are  all  external,  we  rise  finally  into  the  insight  that  the 
law  is  to  be  fulfilled,  not  on  account  of  those  motives, 
but  because  it  is  the  will  of  the  Lord  ;  not  alone  because 
it  is  conducive  to  our  happiness,  but  also  because  it  is 
in  itself  holy,  and  written  in  our  hearts :  in  other  words, 
man  proceeds  from  the  standpoint  of  abstract  legality, 
through  the  reflection  of  eudsemonism  (i.  e.,  the  expecta- 
tion of  selfish  gain  for  our  obedience),  to  the  internality 
of  moral  sentiment — the  course  of  all  education. 

This  last  standpoint  is  especially  represented  in  the  excellent 
collection  of  aphorisms  of  Jesus  Sirach — a  book  rich  in  pedagog- 
ical insight,  which  paints  with  master-strokes  the  relations  of  hus- 
band and  wife,  parents  and  children,  master  and  servants,  friend  and 
friend,  enemy  and  enemy,  and  the  dignity  of  labor  as  well  as  the 
necessity  of  its  division.  This  priceless  book  forms  a  companion- 
piece  from  the  theocratic  standpoint  to  the  "  Republic  "  and  "  Laws  " 
of  Plato,  in  which  he  treats  the  province  of  ethics. 

[The  history  of  the  Jews  shows  the  discipline  that  they  un- 
dergo.   They  come  to  see  that  the  law  must  be  obeyed,  not  be- 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  THEOCRATIC  EDUCATION.          247 

cause  it  brings  prosperity,  but  because  it  is  the  law  of  holiness 
and  its  fulfillment  makes  men  resemble  God.  In  the  progress 
of  this  nation  we  see  three  stages  which  are  repeated  in  all  in- 
dividuals who  become  thoroughly  educated :  (1)  abstract  legality, 
mechanical  obedience  without  insight  or  purpose ;  (2)  "  the  re- 
flection of  eudasmonism  " — "  reflection,"  because  the  doer  sees  in 
his  deed  his  own  profit  or  gain,  i.  e.,  a  reflection  of  self  as  in  a 
mirror ;  (3)  to  the  internality  of  moral  sentiment,  obedience  to 
the  law,  because  it  leads  to  holiness  or  union  with  God.  See  the 
book  "  Ecclesiasticus "  in  the  "  Apocrypha,"  "  containing  the 
"Wisdom  of  Jesus,  the  Son  of  Sirach,"  for  this  insight  into  the 
law  of  holiness.] 

§  232.  (2)  The  progress  from  the  lower  to  the  higher 
appeared  in  the  conquering  of  the  natural  individuality. 
Man,  as  the  servant  of  Jehovah,  must  have  no  will  of 
his  own ;  but  selfish  naturalness  arrayed  itself  so  much 
the  more  vigorously  against  the  absolute  "  Thou  shalt," 
allowed  itself  to  descend  into  alienation  from  the  law, 
and  often  reached  the  most  unbridled  extravagance.  But 
since  the  law  with  its  inexorable  strictness  always  re- 
mained the  same,  contrasting  its  persistence  with  the 
inequalities  of  human  acts,  it  forced  man  to  come  back 
to  it,  and  to  conform  himself  to  its  demands.  Thus  he 
learned  self-criticism,  thus  he  rose  from  the  natural  into 
the  spiritual.  This  progress  is  at  the  same  time  a  prog- 
ress from  necessity  to  freedom,  because  self-criticism 
gradually  opens  a  way  into  the  insight  that  the  will  of 
God  is  the  true  outcome  of  man's  own  self-determina- 
tion. Because  God  is  one  and  absolute,  there  arises  the 
expectation  that  his  will  will  become  the  basis  for  the 
will  of  all  nations  and  men.  The  criticism  of  the  un- 
derstanding must  recognize  a  contradiction  in  the  fact 
that  the  will  of  the  true  God  is  the  law  of  only  one 

nation.     Other  nations,  moreover,  were  repelled  from 

24 


248  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

the  Jews  by  reason  of  their  worship  of  God  as  a  gloomy 
mystery,  and  they  detested  that  race  as  odium  generis 
humani.  And  thus  is  developed  the  thought  that  the 
isolation  of  the  believers  will  come  to  an  end  as  soon  as 
the  other  nations  recognize  their  faith  as  the  true  one, 
and  are  received  into  it.  Thus  here,  in  the  deepest 
penetration  of  the  soul  into  itself,  as  among  the  Romans 
in  the  fusion  of  nations,  we  see  appear  the  idea  of  the 
human  race. 

[Progress  appeared  in  another  respect  in  the  degree  to  which 
the  people  could  subdue  their  natural  appetites  and  lusts  and 
submit  to  the  law  of  Jehovah.  The  ideal  standard  of  conduct 
being  furnished  by  the  law,  each  Jew  could  criticise  his  own  life 
by  it.  This  criticism,  moreover,  gave  him  insight  into  the  fact 
that  the  law  of  holiness  was  at  the  same  time  the  true  outcome 
of  his  own  self-determination — that  is  to  say,  the  true  means  of 
his  own  perfection,  and  not  an  arbitrary  regulation  of  Jehovah 
forced  on  man  against  his  true  interests.  Again,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  this  insight,  it  became  evident  that  the  law  is  the 
means  of  perfection  for  all  men,  and  that  Jehovah  is  the  God 
of  all  nations,  and  not  the  God  of  the  Jews  alone,  and  that  He 
ought  to  be  recognized  by  all  people.  When  this  is  done  the 
chosen  people  will  be  no  longer  exclusive.  At  this  point  the 
Jewish  theocracy  has  reached  the  idea  of  the  human  race  as  be- 
longing to  one  religion,  and  from  a  different  standpoint  has 
come  to  the  same  result  that  the  Roman  civilization  has  done.] 

§  233.  (3)  The  progress  from  the  past  to  the  future 
developed  an  ideal  of  a  servant  of  God  who  fulfills  all 
the  law,  and  therefore  blots  out  the  empirical  contra- 
diction involved  in  the  fact  that  the  "  Thou,  shalt "  of 
the  law  did  not  attain  adequate  reality.  This  Prince  of 
Peace,  who  shall  gather  all  nations  under  his  banner, 
can  therefore  have  no  other  thing  predicated  of  him 
than  holiness.  He  is  not  beautiful  as  the  Greeks  repre- 
sented their  ideal,  not  brave  and  practical  as  was  the 


THE   SYSTEM   OF  THEOCRATIC  EDUCATION".          249 

venerated  Virtus  of  the  Eomans ;  he  does  not  place  an 
infinite  value  on  his  individuality  as  the  German  does ; 
but  he  is  represented  as  insignificant  in  appearance,  as 
patient,  as  humble,  as  he  who,  in  order  to  reconcile  the 
world,  takes  upon  himself  the  infirmities  and  disgrace 
of  all  others.  The  heathen  nations  have  only  a  lost 
paradise  behind  them ;  the  Jews  have  one  also  before 
them.  From  this  belief  in  the  Messiah  who  is  to  come, 
from  the  certainty  which  they  have  of  conquering  with 
him,  from  the  power  of  esteeming  all  present  things  of 
small  importance  in  view  of  such  a  future,  springs  the 
indestructible  nature  of  the  Jews.  They  ignore  the  fact 
that  Christianity  is  the  necessary  result  of  their  own  his- 
tory. As  the  nation  of  the  future,  they  are  the  world- 
historical  nation  par  excellence,  the  nation  among  na- 
tions, whose  education  —  whenever  the  Jew  has  not 
changed  and  corrupted  his  nature  through  modern  cult- 
ure— is  still  always  patriarchal,  hierarchal,  and  mne- 
monic (dwelling  on  the  memory  of  its  past  history). 

[The  "  Prince  of  Peace  "  is  to  gather  all  peoples  under  his 
banner  of  holiness.  The  Messiah  is  to  come  and  restore  the  lost 
paradise.  In  view  of  this  ideal,  which  has  the  Absolute  God  for 
the  guaranty  of  its  realization,  the  Jew  regards  his  nation  as  the 
nation  of  the  future,  and  end  ares  the  trials  of  the  present  with 
infinite  fortitude.  The  same  ideal  in  Christianity  creates  the 
martyrs  whose  stubborn  individuality  endures  not  only  persecu- 
tion but  death  cheerfuilyT^This  education,  therefore,  furnishes 
the  deepest  ground  for  individuality — sought  by  the  Greeks, 
Romans,  and  Teutonic  peoples  with  only  partial  success.  It  is 
the  bsj^isjior  all  future  education.  All  men  are  of  one  blood,  and 
alrfave  the  same  destiny,  namely,  holiness,  or  participation  in 
the  divine  nature.] 


250  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   SYSTEM   OF   HUMANITARIAN   EDUCATION. 

§  234.  THE  systems  of  national  and  theocratic  edu- 
cation came  to  the  same  result,  though  by  opposite  ways, 
and  this  result  is  the  conception  of  a  human  race  in  the 
unity  of  which  the  distinctions  of  different  nations  com- 
bine and  complement  each  other  so  as  to  form  a  perfect 
whole.  But  with  them  this  result  is  a  mere  ideal,  and 
they  remain  in  their  actual  state  without  realizing  it. 
They  picture  to  themselves  the  ideal  of  the  advent  of 
the  Messiah.  But  these  ideals  exist  only  in  the  mind, 
and  the  actual  condition  of  the  people  sometimes  does 
not  correspond  to  them  at  all,  and  sometimes  only  in  a 
slight  degree.  The  idea  of  spiritual  perfection  had  in 
these  presuppositions  the  possibility  of  its  concrete  act- 
ualization ;  one  individual  man  must  become  conscious 
of  the  universality  and  necessity  of  the  will  as  being  the 
very  essence  of  his  own  freedom,  so  that  all  external 
authority  should  be  canceled  in  the  self-rule  of  spirit, 
which  is  a  law  unto  itself.  Natural  individuality  ap- 
pearing as  national  traits  was  still  acknowledged,  but  was 
deprived  of  its  abstract  one-sidedness.  The  divine  au- 
thority of  the  truth  of  the  individual  will  is  to  be  recog- 
nized, but  at  the  same  time  freed  from  its  estrangement 
toward  itself.  While  Christ  was  a  Jew  and  obedient 
to  the  divine  law,  he  knew  himself  as  the  universal  man 
who  determines  for  himself  his  own  destiny ;  and,  al- 
though distinguishing  God,  as  subject,  from  himself, 
yet  holds  fast  to  the  unity  of  man  and  God.  The  system 
of  humanitarian  education  began  to  unfold  from  this 


THE   SYSTEM   OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       251 

principle,  which  no  longer  accords  the  highest  place  to 
the  natural  unity  of  national  individuality,  nor  to  ab- 
stract obedience  to  the  command  of  God,  but  to  that 
freedom  of  the  soul  which  knows  itself  to  be  uncondi- 
tioned by  aught  in  time  or  space.  Christ  is  not  a  mere 
ideal  of  thought,  but  is  known  as  a  living  member 
of  actual  history,  whose  life,  sufferings,  and  death  for 
freedom  form  the  guaranty  of  its  absolute  justification 
and  truth.  The  aesthetic,  philosophical,  and  political 
ideal  are  all  found  in  the  universal  nature  of  the  Chris- 
tian ideal,  on  which  account  no  one  of  them  appears 
one-sided  in  Christian  life.  The  principle  of  human 
freedom  excludes  neither  art,  nor  science,  nor  politics. 

[The  national  systems  begin  with  China,  and  end  with  Rome. 
Their  outcome  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  theocratic  system  of 
education — the  conception  of  a  human  race  in  which  the  differ- 
ences and  distinctions  of  nations  are  swallowed  up  and  harmo- 
nized. A  new  system  of  education  arose  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  in  the  new  nations  that  sprang  from  its  ruins — a  system 
founded  on  the  Christian  idea.  "What  there  was  positive  in  all 
former  educational  ideals  is  contained  in  the  Christian  ideal. 
The  brotherhood  of  all  men  and  the  common  heritage  of  an  in- 
finite destiny  make  the  attainment  of  all  kinds  of  perfection 
possible.  Art,  science,  politics,  morality,  and  industry,  are  in- 
cluded, but  harmonized  by  the  new  ideal.  This  new  ideal  may 
be  stated  in  the  formula :  The  goal  of  progress  in  Christian  civ- 
ilization is  the  greatest  perfection  of  the  whole,  and  the  simul- 
taneous realization  of  the  good  of  the  whole  race  in  each  indi- 
vidual. The  earlier  stages  of  human  civilization  accepted,  as 
goal,  the  perfection  of  institutions  as  a  whole  at  the  expense  of 
individuality.  Complete  subordination,  which  was  necessary  for 
the  perfect  working  of  the  patriarchal  state,  could  not  be  at- 
tained without  a  suppression  of  independence  on  the  part  of  the 
single  individual.  Progress  is  marked  by  the  rise  of  institu- 
tions which  secure  their  greatest  perfection  through  the  greatest 
development  of  the  individual.  For  example,  the  education  of 


252      PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

all  people  up  to  the  point  of  independent  self-activity  is  neces» 
sary  for  an  ideal  representative  democracy.] 

§  235.  In  its  conception  of  man  the  humanitarian 
education  provides  for  separate  nationalities  (local,  inde- 
pendent self-governments),  thus  securing  the  good  feat- 
ure in  "national"  education,  and  likewise  for  the  sub- 
jection of  all  men  to  the  divine  law,  which  was  taught 
in  the  theocratic  system,  but  it  will  no  longer  permit 
the  former  to  grow  into  an  isolating  exclusiveness,  and 
the  latter  into  a  despotism  which  includes  the  former 
as  an  unessential  element.  But  this  principle  of  hu- 
manity and  human  nature  took  root  so  slowly  that  the 
two  elements,  out  of  which  it  developed,  were  revived 
within  it  in  their  peculiar  one-sidedness,  and  had  to 
be  again  overcome  and  united  anew.  These  stages  of 
culture  were  the  Greek,  the  Kornan,  and  the  Protest- 
ant Churches,  and  education  was  metamorphosed  to  suit 
the  formation  of  each  of  these. 

For  the  sake  of  brevity  we  shall  confine  ourselves  in  what  fol- 
low.--"* pointing  out  general  characteristics ;  the  unfolding  of  details 
is  intimately  bound  up  with  the  history  of  politics  and  of  civiliza- 
tion. "We  shall  be  contented  if  we  correctly  indicate  the  general 
course  of  their  history. 

[Humanitarian  education  (IIumanitats-ErzieJiung  —human- 
ity-education) took  root  so  slowly  that  the  two  phases  which 
were  united  within  it  often  fell  out  of  harmony  and  developed 
one-sidedly,  now  one  predominating  and  now  the  other.  It  be- 
came often  necc39aryrVvyWercome  these  extreme  tendencies  and 
restore  equilibrium.  First,  there  would  be  a  sort  of  relapse  out 
of  the  Christian  ideal  into  a  heathen  ideal,  and  the  national  sys- 
tem of  education  would  be  approached.  Then  a  reaction  would 
set  in,  and  an  extreme  reached  closely  resembling  the  theocratic 
system.  The  three  phases  of  the  Church — Greek,  Roman,  and 
Protestant — suggest  the  three  forms  of  individualism:  (a)  tho 
aesthetic,  (b)  the  practical  or  political,  (c)  the  chivalric.] 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       253 

§  236.  Within  education  we  can  distinguish  these 
thiee  stages  of  development  as  three  epochs :  the  monk- 
ish, the  chivalric,  and  that  education  which  is  to  fit  one 
for  civil  life.  Each  of  these  endeavored  to  express  all 
that  belonged  to  humanity  as  such ;  but  it  was  only  after 
the  recognition  of  the  moral  nature  of  the  family,  of 
labor,  of  culture,  and  of  the  conscious  equal  title  of  all 
men  to  their  rights,  that  this  became  really  possible. 

[Rosenkranz  distinguishes  three  epochs  in  humanitarian  edu- 
cation :  (a)  the  monkish ;  (b)  chivalric ;  (c)  citizen.] 

I.  The  Epoch  of  Monkish  Education. 

§  237.  The  Greek  Church  seized  the  Christian  prin- 
ciple still  abstractly  as  deliverance  from  the  world, 
and  therefore,  in  the  education  proceeding  from  it,  it 
arrived  only  at  the  negative  form,  defining  the  univer- 
sality of  the  individual  man  (i.  e.,  his  essence,  his  true 
destiny)  as  the  renunciation  of  self.  In  the  dogmatism 
of  its  teaching,  as  well  as  in  the  ascetic  severity  ^  its 
practical  conduct,  it  was  a  reproduction  of  the  theo- 
cratic principle.  But  when  this  had  assumed  the  form 
of  national  centralization,  the  Greek  Church  dispensed 
with  the  ascetic  severity,  and,  as  far  as  regards  its  form, 
it  returned  again  to  the  quietism  of  the  Orient. 

[The  Greek  Church  laid  emphasis  on  the  principle  of  renun- 
ciation, which  is  only  one  of  the  e^-u^ts  cf  the  Christian  ideal. 
Its  education,  accordingly,  took  a  negative  tendency  toward  the 
passive  systems  of  the  extreme  East.  Its  asceticism  also  repro- 
duced the  theocratic  principle.  Passivity  and  quietism,  the  com- 
plete subjugation  of  self,  the  renunciation  of  all  secular  aims, 
the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil,  the  withdrawal  from  civiliza- 
tion as  something  repugnant  to  holiness,  characterize  this  first 
epoch-  Holy  men  retired  to  the  deserts  and  lived  as  hermits. 


254  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

Then  they  lived  in  Christian  societies  in  artificial  hermitages, 
cells  constructed  within  high  monastic  walls.  Then  in  the 
Roman  epoch  the  monks  came  out  of  their  cells  and  entered  so- 
ciety to  elevate  it — under  the  leadership  of  St.  Dominic  and  St. 
Francis.  It  was  discovered  that  quietism  and  withdrawal  from 
the  world  left  the  mass  of  mankind  to  spiritual  degradation. 
Christ  had  not  withdrawn  to  the  desert,  but  had  come  nigh  hu- 
manity in  its  busy  haunts  and  sought  to  convert  it.  So  the  Do- 
minicans turned  toward  science  and  learning  and  became  the 
teachers  of  the  wealthy  and  powerful  classes.  The  Franciscans 
became  popular  preachers,  going  among  the  poor  and  lowly,  and 
carrying  the  gospel.  Then  came  Protestantism,  taking  the  fur- 
ther step  of  recognizing  the  secular  in  itself,  considered  as  a  neces- 
sary element  of  the  Christian  ideal  of  humanity.] 

§  238.  The  monkish  education  is  in  general  identical 
in  all  religions,  in  that,  through  its  concentration  of  its 
entire  attention  upon  itself  in  its  practical  activity,  and 
the  stoicism  of  its  way  of  thinking,  through  the  cloister- 
seclusion  of  its  external  existence  and  the  mechanism  of 
a  thoughtless  subjection  to  a  general  rule  as  well  as  to 
the  special  command  of  superiors,  it  fosters  a  spiritual 
and  bodily  dullness.  The  Christian  monachism,  there- 
fore, as  the  perfect  realization  of  the  ideal  of  monachism, 
is  at  the  same  time  the  complete  exposure  of  the  defect 
of  the  principle,  because,  in  merely  renouncing  the 
world  instead  of  conquering  it  and  gaining  possession  of 
it,  it  contradicts  the  very  principle  of  Christianity. 

[The  defect  of  monachism,  as  measured  by  the  entire  scope  of 
Christianity,  has  been  seen :  it  renounces  the  world  instead  of 
conquering  it.] 

§  239.  We  must  notice,  as  the  fundamental  error  of 
this  whole  system,  that  it  does  not  in  free  individuality 
seek  to  produce  the  ideal  of  divine-humanity,  but  to 
copy  its  historical  manifestation  in  an  external  repro- 
duction. Each  human  being  must  complete  the  Atone- 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.      255 

ment  by  offering  up  as  sacrifice  his  own  individuality. 

Each  biography  has  its  Bethlehem,  its  Tabor,  and  its 

G-olgotha. 

[Monachism  aims  rather  to  copy  an  historic  past  than  to  rein- 
carnate its  divine  principle  in  a  new  present  life.  Bethlehem, 
Tabor,  and  Golgotha,  doubtless  come,  or  should  come,  into  every 
complete  life,  but  under  new  forms  peculiar  to  the  occasion.] 

§  240.  Monachism  looks  upon  the  freedom  from 
one's  self  and  from  the  world,  that  Christianity  de- 
mands, only  as  an  entire  renunciation  of  self,  which  it 
seeks  to  compass,  like  Buddhism,  by  the  vows  of  pov- 
erty, chastity,  and  obedience,  which  must  be  taken  by 
each  individual. 

This  rejection  of  property,  of  marriage,  and  of  individual  volition, 
is  at  the  same  time  the  negation  of  work,  of  the  family,  and  of  re- 
sponsibility for  one's  actions.  In  order  to  avoid  the  danger  of  ava- 
rice and  covetousness,  of  sensuality  and  of  nepotism,  of  error  and  of 
guilt,  monachism  seizes  the  convenient  device  of  complete  severance 
from  all  the  objective  world  without  being  able  fully  to  carry  out  this 
negation.  Monkish  education  must,  in  consequence,  be  very  particular 
about  an  external  separation  of  its  disciples  from  the  world,  so  as 
to  make  the  task  of  alienation  from  the  world  easier  and  more  de- 
cided. It  therefore  builds  cloisters  in  the  solitudes  of  the  desert,  in 
the  depths  of  the  forest,  on  the  summits  of  mountains,  and  surrounds 
them  with  high  windowless  walls ;  and  then,  so  as  to  carry  the  isola- 
tion of  the  individual  to  its  farthest  possible  extreme,  it  constructs, 
within  these  cloisters,  cells,  in  imitation  of  the  caves  of  the  first  her- 
mits— a  seclusion  the  immediate  consequence  of  which  is  boundless 
and  most  paltry  curiosity. 

[Christian  monachism  resembles  in  many  of  its  forms  that 
of  Buddhism.  In  fact,  the  Abbe  Hue,  who  visited  Thibet  in 
1845,  found  so  many  ceremonies  of  Lamaism  nearly  identical 
with  corresponding  ones  of  the  Catholic  Church  that  he  was 
obliged  to  infer  that  they  had  been  borrowed  from  the  latter. 
This  is  not  improbable,  when  we  consider  the  extent  to  which 
Christian  monachism  spread  over  Western  Asia  in  the  first  four 
centuries.  The  peculiar  form  of  Buddhism  known  as  Lamaism 


256  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

is  of  later  origin  than  the  Christian  Hermit  epoch,  and  indeed 
at  least  one  century  later  than  St.  Benedict's  reform  in  monach- 
ism.  In  622  Buddhism  was  introduced  into  Thibet,  and  Lhasa 
(Lassa)  founded — the  date  of  the  birth  of  Mohammed.  Its  trans- 
formation into  Lamaism  may  have  been  as  late  as  the  eleventh 
century. 

Three  vows — poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience — indicate  the 
attitude  toward  the  secular  world.  The  three  chief  secular  in- 
stitutions :  (a)  the  family  is  attacked  by  the  second  vow,  which 
aims  at  celibacy ;  (b)  civil  society,  or  the  institution  for  the  pro- 
duction and  distribution  of  property  by  means  of  industry,  is  at- 
tacked by  the  first  vow,  which  renounces  property ;  (c)  the  state 
is  attacked  by  the  third  vow,  which  renounces  allegiance  to  any 
but  its  religious  superiors.  That  this  extreme  of  quietism  was  a 
necessary  resort  in  the  epoch  when  it  was  established  may  be 
granted  without  question.  The  Church  has,  however,  found  it 
from  time  to  time  desirable  to  restrict  this  form  of  life.  It  aims 
to  restrict  monastic  life  to  those  who  have  made  a  hopeless 
failure  in  a  secular  life,  and  by  it  save  them  from  despair  and 
sin.  In  early  ages  it  was  thought  to  be  the  only  life  of  holiness ; 
now  it  is  thought  to  be  auxiliary  to  holiness  in  some  cases.] 

§  241.  Theoretically,  monkish  education  seeks,  by 
means  of  complete  silence,  to  place  the  soul  in  a  state  of 
spiritual  immobility,  which,  through  the  want  of  all  in- 
terchange of  thought,  at  last  sinks  into  entire  apathy 
and  antipathy  toward  all  intellectual  culture.  The  chief 
feature  of  this  practicaT^culture  is  caused  by  the  mis- 
taken idea  that  one  should  ignore  Mature,  instead  of 
morally  freeing  himself  from  her  control.  As  Nature 
again  and  again  asserts  herself,  the  monkish  discipline 
proceeds  to  ill-treat  her,  and  strives  through  fasting, 
through  sleeplessness,  through  voluntary  self-inflicted 
pain  and  torture,  not  only  to  subdue  the  wantonness  of 
the  flesh,  but  to  destroy  the  love  of  life  till  it  shall  be- 
come a  positive  loathing  of  existence.  In  and  for  them- 
selves the  objects  renounced  by  the  monkish  vow — prop- 


THE   SYSTEM   OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       257 

erty,  the  family,  and  individual  choice — are  not  immoral. 
The  vow  is,  on  this  account,  very  easy  to  violate.  In 
order  to  prevent  all  temptation  to  this,  monkish  educa- 
tion invents  a  system  of  supervision,  partly  open,  partly 
secret,  which  deprives  one  of  all  freedom  of  action,  all 
freshness  of  thinking  and  of  willing,  and  all  poetry  of 
feeling,  by  means  of  the  perpetual  shadow  of  spies  and 
informers.  The  monks  are  well  versed  in  all  police- 
arts,  and  the  well-graded  series  of  supervisors  and  gen- 
eral inspectors  in  the  hierarchy  spurs  them  on  always  to 
distinguish  themselves  in  these  arts  of  espionage. 

[Monkish  discipline  of  fasts,  vigils,  and  penances.  Necessity 
of  espionage — the  support  of  individual  resolution  by  the  super- 
vision of  one's  companions  and  superiors.] 

§  242.  The  gloomy  breath  of  this  education  pene- 
trated all  the  relations  of  the  Byzantine  state.  Even 
the  education  of  the  emperor  was  infected  by  it ;  and  in 
the  strife  for  freedom  waged  by  the  modern  Greeks 
against  the  Turks,  the  priors  of  the  cloisters  were  the 
real  leaders  of  the  insurrection.  Independence  of  indi- 
viduality, as  opposed  to  monkish  self-abnegation,  was 
compelled  more  or  less  to  degenerate  into  the  crude 
form  of  soldier  and  pirate  life.  But  this  principle  of 
free  individuality  was  not  left  to  manifest  itself  in  this 
unlawful  manner ;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  built  up  posi- 
tively into  humanity ;  and  this  the  German  world,  under 
the  guidance  of  the  Roman  Church,  undertook  to  ac- 
complish. 

[Deserted  by  the  religious  element,  secularity  in  the  Eastern 
Empire  took  on  irregular  and  barbarous  forms.  In  the  West, 
under  the  "  Holy  Roman  Empire,"  whose  seat  was  in  Germany, 
secularity  came  to  be  more  penetrated  by  the  influence  of  the 
Church,  and  thus  arose  the  epoch  of  chivalric  education.] 


258  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

II.  The  Epoch  of  Chivalric  Education. 

§243.  The  Romish  Church  annulled  the  principle 
of  abstract  substantiality  of  the  Greeks  (i.  e.,  that  sup- 
pressed individuality  in  behalf  of  divinely  ordained 
religious  ceremonies)  through  the  practical  aim  which 
she  set  up  in  the  principle  of  sanctity  in  works,  and  by 
means  of  which  she  raised  up  German  individuality  to 
the  idealism  of  chivalry,  i.  e.,  a  free  military  service  in 
behalf  of  Christendom. 

[By  the  principle  of  sanctity  in  works  (Pelagianism),  the 
Church  raised  German  individuality  to  the  idealism  of  chivalry. 
This  seems  strange  to  ordinary  Protestant  views.  The  Roman 
Catholic  principle,  however,  corrected  in  this  way  the  faulty  ab- 
straction of  the  Greek  Church.] 

§  244.  As  a  matter  of  course  the  system  of  monkish 
education  which  was  taken  up  into  this  epoch  as  one  of  its 
elements  was  modified  to  conform  to  it ;  e.  g.,  the  Bene- 
dictines were  accustomed  to  labor  in  agriculture  and  in 
the  transcribing  of  books,  and  this  contradicted  the  idea 
of  monachism,  since  that  in  and  for  itself  tends  to  an 
absolute  forgetf ulness  of  the  world  and  a  perfect  absence 
of  all  activity  in  the  individual.  The  begging  orders 
were  public  preachers,  and  made  popular  the  idea  of 
love  and  unselfish  sacrifice  for  others.  They  gave  an 
impulse  to  self-education,  especially  by  holding  up  the 
ideal  of  the  life  of  Christ ;  e.  g.,  in  Tauler's  classical 
book  on  the  "  Imitation  of  the  Life  of  Jesus,"  and  in 
the  work  of  Thomas  -  &  -  Kempis,  which  resembles  it. 
Through  a  constant  contemplation  of  the  mental  pict- 
ure of  Christ,  who  suffered  and  died  for  love,  they 
sought  to  find  content  in  divine  rest  and  self-forget- 
fulness. 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       259 

f  Monachism  in  the  West  was  modified  by  the  mentioned  prin- 
ciple of  sanctity  in  works,  so  that  ora  et  labora  became  the 
motto.  Industry  was  admitted  side  by  side  with  religious  cere- 
monial. Agriculture,  copying  of  manuscripts,  some  of  the  trades, 
etc.,  were  followed  by  the  monks.  It  retained,  however,  elements 
of  quietism.] 

§  245.  German  chivalry  sprang  from  feudalism.  The 
education  of  those  pledged  to  military  duty  had  become 
confined  to  practice  in  the  use  of  arms.  The  education 
of  the  chivalric  vassals  pursued  the  same  course,  refining 
it  gradually  through  the  influence  of  court  society  and 
through  poetry,  which  devoted  itself  either  to  the  art  of 
relating  graceful  tales,  or  to  the  glorification  of  woman. 
Girls  were  brought  up  without  especial  care.  The  boy 
until  he  was  seven  years  old  remained  in  the  hands  of 
women ;  then  he  became  a  lad  (a  young  gentleman), 
and  learned  the  art  of  offensive  and  defensive  warfare, 
on  foot  and  on  horseback ;  between  his  sixteenth  and 
eighteenth  year,  through  a  formal  ceremony  (the  laying 
on  of  the  sword),  he  was  duly  authorized  to  bear  arms. 
But  whatever  besides  this  he  might  wish  to  learn  was 
left  to  his  own  caprice. 

[The  education  of  chivalry  was  confined  to  practice  in  the  use 

of  arms,  to  knightly  etiquette,  and  poetry.] 

§  246.  In  contradistinction  to  the  monkish  education, 
chivalry  placed  an  infinite  value  on  individuality,  and 
this  it  expressed  in  its  extreme  sensibility  to  the  feeling 
of  honor.  Education,  on  this  account,  endeavored  to 
foster  this  consciousness  of  self-importance  by  means  of 
the  social  isolation  in  which  it  placed  the  knightly  order. 
The  knight  did  not  delight  himself  with  domestic  af- 
fairs, but  he  sought  for  him  who  had  been  wronged, 
since  in  helping  him  to  his  rights  he  could  find  enjoy- 

25 


260  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

ment  as  a  conqueror.  He  did  not  live  in  simple  mar- 
riage, but  strove  for  the  piquant  pleasure  of  making  the 
wife  of  another  the  lady  of  his  heart,  and  this  often  led 
to  moral  and  carnal  infidelity.  And,  finally,  the  knight 
did  not  obey  alone  the  general  laws  of  knightly  honor, 
but  he  strove,  besides,  to  discover  for  himself  unusual 
tasks,  which  he  should  undertake  with  his  sword,  in 
defiance  of  all  criticism,  simply  because  it  pleased  his 
caprice  so  to  do.  He  sought  adventures. 

[While  the  monkish  education  repressed  individuality,  chiv- 
alry placed  unbounded  value  on  it.  Monachism  did  not,  it  is 
true,  repress  essential  individuality,  after  the  manner  of  Oriental 
systems.  It  gave  the  soul  assurance  of  infinite  individuality  as 
its  eternal  reward.  In  distinguishing  between  holiness  and  finite 
aims,  however,  it  went  to  an  extreme  in  repressing  the  latter. 
The  knight  took  no  pleasure  in  the  prose  of  common  life.  He 
sought  adventure.  He  must  find  some  person  who  had  been 
robbed  or  kidnapped  whose  wrongs  he  would  undertake  to  right. 
He  looked  about  for  some  odd  and  peculiar  enterprise,  so  that  he 
might  realize  his  individuality  in  its  pursuit.  Eccentricity  was 
supposed  to  be  essential  to  individuality.] 

§  247.  The  reaction  against  the  numberless  fantastic 
extravagancies  arising  from  chivalry  developed  the  idea 
of  the  spiritual  chivalry  which  was  to  unite  the  cloister 
and  the  town,  absolute  self-denial  and  military  life,  sep- 
aration from  the  world  and  the  sovereignty  over  the 
world.  Although  this  was  an  undeniable  advance,  it  was 
an  untenable  synthesis  which  could  not  long  delay  the 
dissolution  of  chivalry,  which,  as  the  rule  of  the  stronger, 
led  to  the  destruction  of  all  regular  culture  founded  on 
principles,  and  brought  on  a  protracted  period  of  absence 
of  all  education.  In  this  perversion  of  chivalry  to  a 
grand  vagabondism,  and  even  to  robbery,  noble  souls 
often  rushed  into  ridiculous  excesses.  The  downfall  of 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.      261 

chivalry  prepared  the  way  for  citizenship,  whose  educa- 
tion, however,  did  not,  like  the  TTO\I,S  and  the  civitas 
of  the  ancients,  limit  itself  to  the  narrow  bounds  of 
special  local  interests,  but,  through  the  presence  of  the 
principle  of  Christianity,  accepted  the  whole  circle  of 
humanity  as  the  aim  of  its  culture. 

[Knight-errantry  developed  into  a  more  rational  form  of  chiv- 
alry, namely,  the  orders  devoted  to  special  religious  purposes. 
But  these  did  not  retard  the  decay  of  the  entire  institution  of 
chivalry.  The  Crusades  furnished  the  highest  opportunity  for 
the  spirit  of  knightly  individuality,  and,  when  they  had  suc- 
ceeded in  giving  a  new  consciousness  to  Christendom  by  uniting 
the  East  and  West,  there  was  nothing  left  for  chivalry  to  do.  It 
degenerated  into  a  grand  vagabondism.  The  Crusades  impover- 
ished royal  treasuries,  and  weakened  the  power  of  the  aristocra- 
cies. But  the  cities  gained  immensely,  because  they  furnished 
troops  and  money  to  carry  on  the  wars.  Their  charters  were 
made  strong  and  liberal.  They  were  the  nurseries  of  freemen. 
The  growth  of  cities  put  an  end  to  chivalry,  and  inaugurated 
the  present  epoch  of  education,  that  whose  object  is  citizenship.] 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   SYSTEM   OF    HUMANITARIAN    EDUCATION'    (continued}. 

III.  The  Epoch  of  Education  fitting  one  for  Civil 

Life. 

§  248.  THE  condition  of  cities  had  gradually  im- 
proved through  trade  and  industry,  and  this  state  of 
affairs  now  found  in  Protestantism  its  spiritual  confir- 
mation. Protestantism,  as  the  self-assurance  of  the  in- 
dividual that  he  was  directly  related  to  God  without 


262  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

dependence  on  the  mediation  of  any  man,  adopted  the 
principle  of  the  autonomy  of  the  soul,  and  began  to 
develop  Christianity,  as  the  principle  of  humanitarian 
education,  into  concrete  actuality,  and  to  free  it  from 
the  creations  of  the  imagination,  with  which  monasticism 
and  chivalry  had  clothed  it.  The  cities  were  not  mere- 
ly, in  comparison  with  the  clergy  and  the  nobility,  the 
"  third  estate " ;  but  the  citizen  who  himself  managed 
his  political  affairs,  and  defended  his  interests  with 
arms,  developed  into  the  order  of  state-citizen,  which 
absorbed  the  clergy  and  nobility,  and  the  state-citizen 
found  his  ultimate  ideal  in  pure  humanity  conscious  of 
its  rationality. 

[The  growth  of  citizenship  found  a  special  confirmation  in  the 
Protestant  movement,  whose  most  important  feature  was  the 
recognition  of  secularism  as  one  essential  phase  of  Christian  civ- 
ilization.] 

§  249.  The  phases  of  this  development  are  (1)  civil 
education  as  such,  within  which  we  find  also  the  chival- 
ric  education  metamorphosed  into  the  so-called  nobility 
education,  these  two  forms,  however,  being  controlled, 
as  to  education,  within  Catholicism  by  Jesuitism,  within 
Protestantism  by  pietism.  (2)  Against  this  exclusive 
tendency  toward  the  Church,  we  find  reacting  on  the  one 
hand  the  devotion  to  a  study  of  antiquity,  and  on  the 
other  the  friendly  alliance  with  immediate  actuality,  i.  e., 
with  Nature.  "We  can  name  these  periods  of  the  his- 
tory of  education  those  of  its  ideals  of  culture.  (3)  But 
the  true  aim  of  all  culture  must  forever  remain  moral 
freedom.  After  education  had  arrived  at  a  knowledge 
of  the  meaning  of  idealism  and  realism,  it  must  seize  as 
its  absolute  aim  the  moral  emancipation  of  man  into 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       263 

humanity;  and  it  must  subordinate  its  culture  to  this 
aim,  inasmuch  as  technical  dexterity,  social  accomplish- 
ment, proficiency  in  the  arts,  and  scientific  insight,  can 
attain  to  their  proper  rank  only  through  moral  purity. 

[The  three  phases  of  development  of  this  epoch  are :  (1)  The 
education  of  the  citizen  as  opposed  to  the  education  of  the  no- 
bility, both  controlled  by  religious  education — Jesuitism  within 
Catholicism  and  Pietism  within  Protestantism.  (2)  A  counter- 
movement  arose  as  a  reaction  against  the  too  exclusive  control 
of  the  Church,  on  the  one  hand  devoted  to  the  study  of  ancient 
languages  and  history,  on  the  other  hand  devoted  to  natural 
science.  (3)  The  further  progress  of  education  unites  aad  recon- 
ciles these  two  tendencies.]  //d£&' 

:*\ 

1.  Civil  Education  as  swc)L^  /»..  ,cXo»«Jk.  sr 


§  250.  The  one-sidedness  of  monkish  anocMvalric 
education  was  overcome  by  civil  education  in  so  far  as 
it  set  aside  the  celibacy  of  the  monk  and  the  estrange- 
ment of  the  knight  from  his  family,  doing  this  by  in- 
creasing the  hold  of  family  life  upon  the  individual ;  for 
it  set  up,  as  its  standard  of  perfect  living,  the  positive 
morality  of  marriage  and  the  family  in  the  place  of  the 
negative  duty  of  holiness  of  the  celibate ;  while,  instead 
of  the  poverty  and  idleness  of  monkish  piety  and  instead 
of  chivalric  wealth,  it  taught  that  property  and  labor 
were  worthy  objects  of  man — i.  e.,  it  advocated  the  self- 
determined  morality  of  civil  society  and  of  its  transac- 
tions; and,  finally,  instead  of  the  slavery  of  the  con- 
science, in  the  form  of  implicit  obedience  to  the  com- 
mand of  others,  and  instead  of  the  freakish  self-sufficien- 
cy of  the  caprice  of  the  knights,  it  demanded  obedience 
to  the  laws  of  the  commonwealth  as  representing  his 
own  self-conscious,  actualized,  practical  reason,  in  which 


264  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

laws  the  individual  can  recognize  and  acknowledge  him- 
self. 

As  this  civil  education  left  free  the  enjoyment  of  the  body, 
sensuality  was  without  bounds  for  a  time,  until,  after  men  became 
accustomed  to  labor  and  to  know  their  privileges  and  capacities  for 
physical  satisfaction,  they  gradually  learned  a  moderation  which 
sumptuary  laws  and  prohibitions  of  gluttony  and  drunkenness  could 
never  create  from  the  external  side.  "What  the  monk  inconsistent- 
ly enjoyed  with  a  bad  conscience,  the  citizen,  like  the  preacher  in 
Ecclesiastes,  could  take  possession  of  as  a  gift  of  God.  After  the 
first  millennium  of  Christianity,  when  the  earth  had  not,  according 
to  the  current  prophecies  of  the  millennialists,  been  destroyed,  and 
after  the  great  plague  in  the  fourteenth  century,  there  was  felt  an 
immense  pleasure  in  living,  which  manifested  itself  externally  in  the 
fifteenth  century  in  delicate  wines,  dainty  food,  great  eating  of  meat, 
drinking  of  beer,  and,  in  the  domain  of  dress,  in  trunk-hose,  peaked 
shoes,  plumes,  golden  chains,  bells,  etc.  There  was  much  venison, 
but  as  yet  no  potatoes,  no  tea  and  coffee.  The  temper  of  men  was 
quarrelsome.  [Reference  here  to  Sebastian  Brant,  etc.,  omitted.] 

[Civil  education  (a)  overcomes  the  estrangement  of  the  knight 
from  his  family  and  of  the  monk  from  secularity.  It  sets  up 
marriage  and  the  family  as  the  ethical  ideal ;  (b)  it  opposes  the 
poverty  of  the  monk  and  the  wealth  of  the  knight  by  claiming 
for  labor  and  its  productions  a  higher  place;  (c)  instead  of 
obedience  to  the  spiritual  superior  and  the  caprice  of  the  knight, 
it  required  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  commonwealth  as  laws 
demanded  by  the  reason  and  self-interest  of  all.  Great  sensu- 
ality prevailed  for  a  time  after  the  advent  of  this  epoch.] 

§  251.  In  contrast  with  the  heaven-seeking  of  the 
monks  and  the  sentimental  love-making  of  the  knight, 
civil  education  established,  as  its  principle,  usefulness, 
which  investigated  in  things  their  adaptation  to  various 
purposes  in  order  to  gain  such  mastery  over  them  as 
was  found  possible.  The  understanding  was  trained 
with  all  exactness,  that  it  might  clearly  perceive  the  ob- 
jects in  the  world.  But  since  family-life  did  not  allow 
the  self -concentration  of  the  individual  ever  to  become  as 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       265 

great  as  was  the  case  with  the  monk  and  the  knight, 
and  since  the  cheer  of  a  sensuous  enjoyment  in  cellar 
and  kitchen,  in  clothing  and  furniture,  in  social  games 
and  in  gorgeous  pageants,  penetrated  the  whole  being 
with  soft  pleasure,  there  was  developed  a  sense  of  pro- 
priety and  sobriety,  a  sort  of  house-morality,  and,  united 
with  the  prose  of  labor,  a  warm  and  kindly  disposition, 
which  left  room  for  innocent  merriment  and  roguery, 
and  found  its  serious  transfiguration  in  the  staid  and 
solemn  demeanor  at  church.  Beautiful  burgher-state, 
thou  wast  weakened  by  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  hast 
been  only  accidentally  preserved  sporadically  in  Old 
England  and  in  some  places  in  Germany,  only  to  be  at 
last  swept  away  by  the  flood  of  modern  world-pain, 
political  sophistry,  and  anxiety  for  the  future ! 

[Usefulness,  or  adaptation  of  finite  things  to  rational  purposes, 
was  set  up  as  the  principle.  The  extremes  of  individualism 
were  tempered  by  the  family  influence  at  home  and  by  the  in- 
fluence of  the  clergy  and  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church.] 

§  252.  The  citizen  paid  special  attention  to  public 
education,  heretofore  wholly  dependent  upon  the  Church 
and  the  cloister ;  he  organized  city  schools,  whose  teach- 
ers, it  is  true,  for  a  long  time  possessed  only  superficial 
culture,  and  were  often  employed  only  for  uncertain  or 
short  terms.  The  society  of  the  brotherhood  of  the 
Hieronymites  introduced  a  better  system  of  instruction 
before  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century,  but  education 
had  often  to  be  obtained  from  the  so-called  traveling 
scholars  (vagantes,  fiacchantes,  scholastic^  goliardi,  etc.). 
The  teachers  of  the  so-called  scholce  exteriores,  in  dis- 
tinction from  the  schools  of  the  cathedral  and  cloister, 
were  called  here  locati,  there  stampuales — in  German, 


266  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

Kinder-Matter.  The  institution  of  German  schools 
soon  followed  the  Latin  city  schools.  In  order  to  re- 
move the  anarchy  in  school  matters,  the  citizens  aided 
the  rise  of  universities  by  donations  and  foundations, 
and  sustained  the  street-singing  of  the  city  scholars 
(currende\  an  institution  which  was  well-meant,  but 
which  often  failed  of  its  end  because  on  the  one  hand  it 
was  often  misused  as  a  mere  means  of  subsistence,  and 
on  the  other  hand  the  sense  of  honor  of  those  for  whom 
it  was  established  not  unfrequently  became,  through 
their  manner  of  living,  lowered  and  degraded.  The 
defect  of  the  monkish  method  of  instruction  became 
ever  more  apparent,  e.  g.,  the  silly  tricks  of  their  mne- 
motechnique,  the  utter  lack  of  anything  which  deserved 
the  name  of  any  practical  knowledge.  The  necessity 
of  instruction  in  the  use  of  arms  led  to  democratic  forms. 
Printing  favored  the  same.  Men  began  to  concern 
themselves  about  good  text-books.  Melanchthon  was 
the  hero  of  the  Protestant  world,  and  as  a  pattern  was 
beyond  his  time.  His  "  Dialectics,"  "  Rhetoric,"  "  Phys- 
ics," and  "  Ethics,"  were  reprinted  innumerable  times, 
commented  upon,  and  imitated.  After  him  Amos  Co- 
menius,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  had  the  greatest  in- 
fluence through  his  "  Didactica  Magna"  and  his  "  Janua 
Reserata."  In  a  narrower  sphere,  treating  of  the  founda- 
tion of  philology  in  the  gymnasiums  (classical  schools), 
the  most  noticeable  is  Sturm,  of  Strasburg.  The  uni- 
versities in  Catholic  countries  limited  themselves  to  the 
scholastic  philosophy  and  theology,  together  with  which 
we  find  slowly  struggling  up  to  notice  the  study  of 
Roman  law  and  medicine  in  Bologna  and  Salerno.  But 
Protestantism  first  raised  the  university  to  any  real  uni- 


THE  SYSTEM   OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       267 

versality.  Tubingen,  Konigsberg,  "Wittenberg,  Jena, 
Leipsic,  Halle,  and  Gottingen  were  the  first  schools  for 
the  study  of  all  sciences,  and  for  their  free  and  produc- 
tive pursuit. 

[Here  begins  the  organization  of  the  school  as  an  independent 
institution.  Traveling  scholars.  "  Outside  schools,"  as  distin- 
guished from  those  of  the  cathedral  and  cloister.  Endowments 
of  universities  by  wealthy  citizens.  Melanchthon's  text-books 
for  Protestant  schools.  Comenius  (1592-1671)  shows  in  all 
directions  the  influence  of  his  study  of  Lord  Bacon's  works. 
In  the  "  Advancement  of  Learning  "  one  finds  the  basis  of  the 
Janua,  Linguae,  Latince,  Reserata  of  Comenius,  as  well  as  his  sys- 
tem of  classification  and  grading  of  pupils,  and  of  his  course  of 
study.  "Know  all  things  (learning);  master  all  things  and 
one's  self  (virtue) ;  find  the  relation  of  all  to  God  (piety) " :  these 
Comenius  held  to  be  the  objects  of  the  school. 

John  Sturm,  of  Strasburg  (1507-1589),  long  before  Comenius, 
had  laid  the  foundation  of  what  has  become  the  traditional 
course  of  instruction  and  methods  of  study  in  the  classical 
schools  for  preparation  for  college.  Scholastic  philosophy  and 
theology  still  held  the  chief  place  in  Catholic  universities.  The 
German  universities  became  the  first  schools  for  the  study  of  all 
science.] 

§  253.  The  cities,  which  at  first  appeared  with  the 
clergy  and  the  nobility  as  the  third  estate,  formed  an 
alliance  with  monarchy,  and  both  together  produced  a 
transformation  of  the  chivalric  education.  Absolute 
monarchy  reduced  the  knights  to  mere  nobles,  to  whom 
it  conceded  the  prerogative  of  appointment  as  spiritual 
prelates  as  well  as  officers  and  counselors  of  state,  but 
only  on  the  condition  of  the  most  complete  submission ; 
and  then,  to  satisfy  them,  it  invented  the  artificial  social 
revels  of  splendid  court-life,  and  a  charming  and  impos- 
ing array  of  beauty.  In  this  condition,  the  education 
of  the  nobles  was  essentially  changed  in  so  far  as  to  cease 


268  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

to  be  merely  military.  To  tlie  practice  of  arms,  which, 
moreover,  was  made  of  very  much  less  consequence  by 
the  democratic  device  of  fire-arms,  must  be  now  added  a 
special  training  of  the  mind  which  could  no  longer  dis- 
pense with  some  knowledge  of  history,  heraldry,  gene- 
alogy, literature,  and  mythology.  Since  the  French 
nation  gave  tone  to  the  style  of  conversation,  and  after 
the  time  of  Louis  XI Y  controlled  the  politics  of  the 
Continent,  the  French  language,  as  conventional  and 
diplomatic,  became  a  constant  element  in  the  education 
of  the  nobility  in  all  the  other  countries  of  Europe. 

Practically,  the  education  of  the  noble  endeavored  to  equip  the 
individual  with  accomplishments,  so  that  he  should,  by  means  of  the 
important  quality  of  an  advantageous  personal  appearance  and  the 
prudence  of  his  agreeable  behavior,  make  himself  into  a  ruler  of  all 
other  men,  and  even  of  his  equals  in  rank — i.  e.,  he  should  copy  in 
miniature  the  manners  of  an  absolute  sovereign.  The  practical 
knowledge  of  men  was  on  this  account  made  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance, and,  under  the  form  of  ethical  maxims,  taught  how  to  disco vei 
the  weak  side  of  every  man,  and  so  be  able  to  outwit  him.  Mundus 
vult  decipi,  ergo  decipiatur.  According  to  this,  every  man  had  his 
price.  They  did  not  believe  in  the  Nemesis  of  a  divine  ordination ; 
on  the  contrary,  disbelief  in  the  higher  justice  was  taught.  One 
must  be  so  elastic  as  to  suit  himself  to  all  situations,  and,  as  a  carica- 
ture of  the  ancient  ataraxy,  he  must  acquire  as  a  second  nature  a 
manner  perfectly  indifferent  to  all  changes,  the  impassibility  of  an 
aristocratic  repose,  the  amphibious  cold-bloodedness  of  the  "  gentle- 
man." The  man  of  the  world,  like  a  worldling,  sought  his  ideal  in 
endless  dissimulation,  and  this,  as  the  flowering  of  his  culture,  he 
made  his  chief  end.  Intrigue,  in  love  as  well  as  in  politics,  was  the 
soul  of  the  nobleman's  existence. 

They  endeavored  to  procure  refinement  of  manners  by  sending 
the  young  man  away  with  a  traveling  tutor.  This  was  very  good,  but 
degenerated  at  last  into  the  mechanism  of  the  mere  sight-seeing 
tourist.  The  noble  was  made  a  foreigner,  a  stranger  to  his  own  coun- 
try, by  means  of  his  abode  at  Paris  or  Venice,  while  the  citizen  grad- 
ually outstripped  him  in  genuine  culture. 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       269 

[The  citizen-class  appeared  as  a  "  third  estate "  between  the 
nobles  and  the  clergy  (as  explained  in  the  commentary  on  §  247). 
The  power  of  the  king  increased,  and,  assisted  by  the  cities,  was 
able  to  reduce  the  haughty  nobles  to  obedience  to  law  and  order. 
The  education  of  the  nobility  now  ceased  to  be  exclusively  mili- 
tary. History,  heraldry,  literature,  etc.,  began  to  be  studied.  Es- 
pecially important  is  the  fact  that  the  French  language  became 
the  court  language  for  diplomacy  as  well  as  for  polite  intercourse. 

The  nobleman  was  educated  to  make  himself  a  ruler  over 
men.  Great  attention  was  given  to  his  personal  carriage.  Cer- 
tain worldly-wise  maxims,  entirely  unscrupulous  as  to  moral 
contents,  became  current.  "  The  world  wishes  to  be  deceived, 
therefore  let  it  be  deceived."  "Every  man  has  his  price." 
This  worldliness  assumed  the  form  of  a  versatile  diplomacy 
which  was  able  to  pursue  its  ends  through  dissimulation,  pre- 
serving, under  all  its  different  faces,  the  impassivity  of  aristo- 
cratic repose,  which  was  the  ideal  of  the  "  gentleman." 

The  self -estrangement  (see  §§  23,  24,  commentary)  necessary 
for  culture  was  sought  in  foreign  travel  and  residence  abroad, 
besides,  in  the  use  of  the  French  language  when  at  home,  in 
London,  or  Vienna.] 

§  254.  The  education  of  the  citizen  as  well  as  that 
of  the  noble  was  taken  possession  of,  in  Catholic  coun- 
tries by  the  Jesuits,  in  Protestant  countries  by  the  Pie- 
tists :  by  the  first,  with  a  military  strictness ;  by  the  sec- 
ond, in  a  sociable  and  gentle  form.  Both,  however, 
agreed  in  destroying  individuality,  inasmuch  as  the  one 
degraded  man  into  a  will-less  machine  for  executing  the 
commands  of  others,  and  the  other  deadened  him  in 
cultivating  the  feeling  of  his  sinful  worthlessness. 

[Two  religious  systems  of  education :  (a)  the  Jesuits ;  (b)  the 
Pietists.] 

(a)  Jesuitic  Education. 

§  255.  Jesuitism  combined  the  maximum  of  worldly 
freedom  with  an  appearance  of  the  greatest  piety.  Pro- 


270      PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

ceeding  from  this  standpoint,  it  devoted  itself  in  edu- 
cation to  elegance  and  showy  knowledge,  to  diplomacy 
and  what  was  suitable  and  convenient  in  morals.  To 
secure  future  power,  it  adapted  itself  not  only  to  youth 
in  general,  but  especially  to  the  youth  of  the  nobler 
classes.  To  please  the  latter,  the  Jesuits  laid  great  stress 
upon  a  fine  deportment.  In  their  colleges  dancing  and 
fencing  were  well  taught.  They  knew  how  well  they 
should  by  this  course  content  the  noble,  who  had  already 
usurped  the  name  of  education  for  these  technical  ac- 
complishments useful  in  giving  formal  expression  to 
personality. 

In  instruction  they  developed  so  exact  a  mechanism  that  they 
gained  the  reputation  of  having  model  school  regulations,  and  even 
Protestants  sent  their  children  to  them.  From  the  close  of  the  six- 
teenth century  to  the  present  time  they  have  based  their  teaching 
upon  the  Ratio  et  institutio  studiorum  Societatis  Jesu  of  Claudius  of 
Aquaviva.  Following  that,  they  distinguished  two  courses  of  teach- 
ing, a  higher  and  a  lower.  The  lower  included  nothing  but  an  ex- 
ternal knowledge  of  the  Latin  language,  and  some  fortuitous  knowl- 
edge of  history,  of  antiquities,  and  of  mythology.  The  memory  was 
cultivated  as  a  means  of  keeping  down  free  activity  of  thought  and 
clearness  of  judgment.  The  higher  course  comprehended  dialectics, 
rhetoric,  physics,  and  morals.  Dialectics  was  expounded  as  the  art 
of  sophistry.  In  rhetoric,  they  favored  the  polemical  and  emphatic 
style  of  the  African  fathers  of  the  Church  and  their  gorgeous  phrase- 
ology ;  in  physics,  they  followed  Aristotle  closely,  and  especially  en- 
couraged reading  of  the  books  "  De  Generatione  et  Corruptione  "  and 
"  De  Coelo,"  on  which  they  commented  after  their  fashion ;  finally, 
in  morals  casuistic  skepticism  was  their  central  point.  They  made 
much  of  rhetoric  on  account  of  their  sermons,  giving  to  it  careful 
attention.  They  laid  stress  on  declamation,  and  introduced  it  into 
their  showy  public  examinations  through  the  performance  of  Latin 
school  comedies,  and  thus  amused  the  public,  disposed  them  to  ap- 
proval, and  at  the  same  time  quite  innocently  practiced  the  pupil  in 
the  art  of  assuming  a  feigned  character. 

Diplomatic  conduct  was  made  necessary  to  the  pupils  of  the  Jes- 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       271 

uits  as  well  by  their  strict  military  discipline  as  by  their  system  of 
mutual  mistrust,  espionage,  and  informing.  Implicit  obedience  re- 
lieved the  pupils  from  all  responsibility  as  to  the  moral  justification 
of  their  deeds.  This  exact  following  out  of  all  commands,  and  re- 
fraining from  any  criticism  as  to  principles,  created  a  moral  indiffer- 
ence,  and,  from  the  necessity  of  having  consideration  for  the  peculiar- 
ities and  caprices  of  the  superior  on  whom  all  others  were  depend- 
ent, arose  eye-service.  The  coolness  of  mutual  distrust  sprang  from 
the  necessity  which  each  felt  of  being  on  his  guard  against  every 
other  as  a  tale-bearer.  The  most  deliberate  hypocrisy  and  pleasure  in 
intrigue  merely  for  the  sake  of  intrigue — this  subtilest  poison  of  moral 
corruption — were  the  result.  Jesuitism  had  not  only  an  interest  in  the 
material  profit,  which,  when  it  had  corrupted  souls,  fell  to  its  share, 
but  it  also  had  an  interest  in  the  educative  process  of  corruption. 
With  absolute  indifference  as  to  the  idea  of  morality,  and  absolute 
indifference  as  to  the  moral  quality  of  the  means  used  to  attain  its 
end,  it  rejoiced  in  the  efficacy  of  secrecy,  and  the  accomplished  and 
calculating  understanding,  and  in  deceiving  the  credulous  by  means 
of  its  graceful,  seemingly  scrupulous,  moral  language. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  speak  here  of  the  morality  of  the  order. 
It  is  sufficiently  recognized  as  its  fundamental  contradiction,  that 
while  it  taught  that  the  idea  of  morality  insists  upon  the  eternal 
necessity  of  conformity  to  duty  in  every  deed,  on  the  other  hand 
it  taught  that  in  actual  practice  this  conformity  to  moral  precept 
should  be  made  to  depend  on  circumstances.  As  to  discipline, 
they  were  always  guided  by  their  fundamental  principle,  that  body 
and  soul,  as  in  and  for  themselves  one,  could  vicariously  suffer  for 
each  other.  Thus  penitence  and  contrition  were  transformed  into  a 
perfect  materialism  of  outward  actions,  and  hence  arose  the  punish- 
ments of  the  order,  in  which  fasting,  scourging,  imprisonment,  morti- 
fication, and  death  were  formed  into  a  mechanical  artificial  system. 

[The  Jesuit  system  of  education,  organized  in  1584  by  Clau- 
dius of  Aquaviva,  was  intended  to  meet  the  active  influence  of 
Protestantism  in  education.  It  was  remarkably  successful,  and 
for  a  century  nearly  all  the  foremost  men  of  Christendom  came 
from  Jesuit  schools.  In  1710  they  had  six  hundred  and  twelve 
colleges,  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  normal  schools,  twenty- 
four  universities,  and  an  immense  number  of  lower  schools. 
These  schools  laid  very  great  stress  on  emulation.  Their  ex- 
periments in  this  principle  are  so  extensive  and  long-continued 
26 


272  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

that  they  furnish  a  most  valuable  phase  in  the  history  of  peda- 
gogy in  this  respect  alone.  In  the  matter  of  supervision  they 
are  also  worthy  of  study.  They  had  a  fivefold  system,  each 
subordinate  being  implicitly  obedient  to  his  superior.  Besides 
this,  there  was  a  complete  system  of  espionage  on  the  part  of 
teachers  and  pupil  monitors.] 

(5)  Pietistic  Education. 

§  256.  Jesuitism  would  make  machines  of  man,  Pi- 
etism would  dissolve  him  in  the  feeling  of  his  sinful- 
ness  :  either  would  destroy  his  individuality.  Pietism 
proceeded  from  the  principle  of  Protestantism,  as,  in 
the  place  of  the  Catholic  Pelagianism  with  its  sanetifica- 
tion  by  works,  it  offered  justification  by  faith  alone.  In 
its  tendency  to  internality,  i.  e.,  to  laying  stress  on  the 
inward  state  of  the  heart  and  the  attitude  of  the  will, 
was  its  just  claim.  It  would  have  even  the  letters  of 
the  Bible  learned  with  religious  emotion.  But  in  its 
execution  it  fell  into  the  error  of  one-sidedness  in  that 
it  placed,  instead  of  the  actual  freedom  accorded  to  the 
individual  by  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  the  imprison- 
ment of  a  limited  personality,  supplanted  free  individu- 
ality by  the  personality  of  Christ  in  an  external  manner, 
and  thus  brought  back  into  the  very  midst  of  Protest- 
antism the  principle  of  monachism  —  an  abstract  re- 
nunciation of  the  world.  Since  Protestantism  had  de- 
stroyed the  idea  of  the  cloister,  it  could  produce 
estrangement  from  the  world  only  by  exciting  public 
opinion  against  such  social  amusements  and  culture  as 
it  stigmatized  as  worldly  for  its  members,  e.  g.,  card- 
playing,  dancing,  the  theatre,  etc.  Thus  it  became 
negatively  dependent  upon  works ;  for  since  its  follow- 
ers remained  in  constant  relation  with  the  world,  so  that 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       273 

the  temptation  to  backsliding  was  a  permanent  one,  it 
must  watch  over  them,  exercise  an  indispensable  moral- 
police  control  over  them,  and  thus,  by  the  distrust  of 
each  other  which  was  involved,  take  up  into  itself  the 
Jesuitical  practice,  although  in  a  very  mild  and  affec- 
tionate way.  Instead  of  the  forbidden  seclusion  of  the 
cloister,  it  organized  a  separate  company,  which,  in  its 
regularly  constituted  assembly,  we  call  a  conventicle. 
Instead  of  the  cowl,  it  put  on  its  youth  a  dress  like  that 
of  the  world  in  its  cut,  but  scant  and  drab-colored ;  it 
substituted  for  the  tonsure  a  fashion  of  cutting  and  part- 
ing the  hair,  and  it  often  went  beyond  the  obedience 
of  the  monks  in  its  expression  of  pining  humility  and 
punctilious  submission.  Education  within  such  a  circle 
could  not  well  recognize  Nature  and  history  as  revela- 
tions of  God,  but  it  must  consider  them  to  be  obstacles 
to  their  union  with  God,  from  which  death  alone  could 
completely  release  them.  The  soul,  which  knew  that 
its  home  could  be  found  only  in  the  future  world,  must 
feel  itself  to  be  a  stranger  upon  the  earth,  and  from  such 
an  opinion  there  must  arise  an  indifference  and  even  a 
contempt  for  science  and  art,  as  well  as  an  aversion  for 
a  life  of  active  labor,  though  an  unwilling  and  forced 
tribute  might  be  paid  to  it.  Philosophy  especially  was 
to  be  shunned  as  dangerous.  Bible-reading,  the  cate- 
chism, and  the  hymn-book,  although  quite  mechanically 
used,  were  the  one  thing  needful  to  the  "  poor  in  spirit." 
Religious  poetry  and  sacred  music  were,  of  all  the  arts, 
the  only  ones  deserving  of  any  cultivation.  The  educa- 
tion of  Pietism  endeavored,  by  means  of  a  carefully 
arranged  series  of  symbolic  expressions,  to  create  in  its 
disciples  the  feeling  of  their  absolute  nothingness,  vile- 


274  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

ness,  godlessness,  and  abandonment  by  God,  in  order  to 
lift  them  out  of  the  abyss  of  despair  in  regard  to  them- 
selves  and  the  world,  and  bring  them  into  a  warm,  dra- 
matic, and  living  relation  to  Christ — a  relation  in  which 
all  the  erotic  passion  of  the  mystical  fervor  of  the  men- 
dicant-friars was  renewed  in  a  somewhat  milder  form 
and  with  a  strong  tendency  to  a  sickening  sentimentality, 
[The  Protestant  counterpart  of  Jesuitism  was  Pietism,  in 
which  there  was  a  tendency  toward  relapse  into  the  principle  of 
monachism.    It  laid  so  much  stress  on  the  letter  that  there  was 
not  strength  enough  left  to  duly  emphasize  the  spirit.    J.  Spener 
(1635-1705)  and  A.  H.  Francke  (1663-1727)  were  the  founders 
of  this  movement.     It  came  so  far  as  to  be  hostile  toward  the 
cultivation  of  the  intellect  and  practical  will.    There  should  be 
no  aesthetics  except  in  the  matter  of  sacred  songs  ("psalm- 
tunes  ") ;  no  science,  and  no  history  except  sacred  history.    The 
Quakers  and  the  Puritans  who  settled  in  America  brought  with 
them  some  of  the  features  of  the  Pietists.    The  truth  of  Pietism 
was  its  struggle  to  realize  the  living  presence  of  God  in  the  af- 
fairs of  men.    The  truth  of  Jesuitism  was  the  importance  to  the 
Church  of  preventing  a  separation  between  secular  education 
and  religious  education.    The  Church,  during  its  first  twelve 
centuries,  had  held  aloof  from  the  secular.    From  the  thirteenth 
to  the  sixteenth  centuries  it  had  striven  to  bring  the  Church  into 
the  secular,  and  thereby  to  guide  and  mold  it.    The  Jesuit  move- 
ment was  a  renewal  of  the  Dominican  and  Franciscan  move- 
ments (see  commentary  to  §  234)  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
Then  the  danger  came  from  Arabian  schools  of  science  and 
philosophy  in  Spain ;  now  it  was  Protestantism,  with  its  doc- 
trine of  the  right  of  individual  judgment.] 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       275 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    SYSTEM    OF    HUMANITARIAN    EDUCATION.       III.    The 

Epoch  of  Education  fitting  one  for  Civil  Life 
(concluded). 

8.  The  Ideal  of  Culture. 

§  257.  CIVIL  education  arose  from  the  recognition 
of  marriage  and  the  family,  of  labor  and  enjoyment,  of 
the  equality  of  all  before  the  law,  and  of  the  duty  of 
self-determination.  Jesuitism  in  the  Catholic  world  and 
Pietism  in  the  Protestant  were  the  reaction  against  this 
recognition — a  return  into  the  asceticism  of  the  middle 
ages ;  not,  however,  in  its  purity,  but  mitigated  by  some 
regard  for  worldly  affairs.  In  opposition  to  this  reac- 
tion the  interests  of  citizen-life  produced  another,  in 
which  it  undertook  to  save  individuality  by  means  of  a 
different  kind  of  alienation.  On  the  one  hand,  it  be- 
came absorbed  in  the  study  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
world ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  occupied  itself  with  the 
practical  interests  of  the  present.  In  the  former  case, 
it  placed  man  outside  of  his  present  world  in  a  distant 
past  which  held  to  the  present  no  immediate  relation^ 
in  the  latter  case  took  him  out  of  himself  and  occupied 
his  attention  with  the  affairs  which  were  to  serve  him 
as  means  of  his  comfort  and  enjoyment.  In  the  former 
it  created  an  abstract  idealism — a  reproduction  of  the 
ancient  view — in  the^lattei*  it  set  up  an  abstract  real- 
ism in  a  high  appreciation  of  things  which  ought  to  be 

considered  of  value  only  as  a  means.     In  the  one  direc- 
20 


276  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

tion,  individuality  was  lost  in  the  contemplation  of  ex- 
tinct nations ;  in  the  other,  it  was  lost  in  a  world  of 
business.  In  one  case,  the  ideal  was  that  of  the  aesthetic 
republicanism  of  the  Greeks;  in  the  other,  the  utili- 
tarian cosmopolitanism  of  the  Eomans.  But,  in  reaction 
against  these  two  extremes,  there  arose  a  form  that 
united  them  and  reconciled  them  in  a  humanity  that 
treated  even  the  beggar  and  the  criminal  with  pity  and 
mercy. 

[Civil  education  rested  on  these  four  things  recognized  by  the 
new  spirit  of  civilization :  (a)  marriage  and  the  family ;  (b)  labor 
and  enjoyment  of  its  products ;  (c)  equality  of  all  before  the  law, 
no  personal  tyranny ;  (d)  the  duty  of  thinking  for  one's  self  and 
acting  according  to  the  dictates  of  one's  own  conscience.  Jesuit- 
ism and  Pietism  were  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  reactions 
against  this  new  spirit.  A  counter-reaction  against  these  now 
set  in :  the  study  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics  on  the  one 
hand  and  a  study  of  natural  science  on  the  other.  These  were 
(a)  the  humanist  ideal,  and  (b)  the  philanthropic  ideal.] 

(a)  The  Humanist  Ideal. 

§  258.  The  Oriental-theocratic  education  is  preserved 
in  Christian  education  through  the  Bible.  Through  the 
mediation  of  the  Greek  and  Eoman  Churches  the  views 
of  the  ancient  world  were  taken  up,  but  not  entirely  as- 
similated. To  accomplish  this  latter  function  was  the 
problem  of  humanist  education.  It  aimed  to  teach  the 
Latin  and  Greek  languages,  expecting  thus  to  secure  as 
effect  a  purely  human  character  in  a  broad,  cosmopoli- 
tan sense.  The  Greeks  and  Eomans  being  sharply 
marked  nationalities,  how  could  one  cherish  such  ex- 
pectations ?  It  was  possible  only  relatively  in  contrast, 
partly  to  an  urban  population  from  whom  all  genuine 
political  sense  had  departed,  partly  in  contrast  to  a 


THE   SYSTEM   OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       277 

church  limited  by  a  confessional,  to  which  the  idea  of 
humanity  as  such  had  become  almost  lost  in  dogmatic 
differences  of  opinion  on  trifling  details.  The  spirit  was 
renewed  in  the  first  by  the  contemplation  of  the  pure 
patriotism  of  the  ancients,  and  in  the  second  by  the  dis- 
covery of  rational  insight  among  the  heathen.  In  con- 
trast to  the  provincial  Philistinism  and  against  the  want 
of  refined  ideals  and  the  lack  of  refined  taste,  was  ar- 
rayed the  power  of  culture  derived  from  the  contem- 
plation of  antique  art.  The  so-called  uselessness  of 
learning  dead  languages  imparted  to  the  mind,  it  knew 
not  how,  an  ideal  drift.  The  very  fact  that  it  could  not 
find  immediate  profit  in  its  knowledge  gave  it  the  con- 
sciousness that  there  is  something  of  a  higher  value  than 
material  profit.  The  ideal  of  the  humanities  was  the 
truth  to  nature  which  was  found  in  the  monuments  of 
the  ancient  world.  The  study  of  language  as  form, 
must  lead  one  involuntarily  to  the  actual  seizing  of  its 
meaning.  The  Latin  schools  grew  into  Gymnasia,  and 
the  universities  contained  not  merely  professors  of  elo- 
quence, but  also  teachers  of  philology. 

[The  study  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  classics  was  supposed  to 
secure  the  development  of  a  pure  humanity,  or  in  other  words  to 
develop  human  nature  in  its  entirety.  The  Greeks  and  Komans 
had  been  true  to  nature,  and  the  study  of  their  languages  and 
literatures  would  do  most  to  set  the  youth  into  harmony  with 
himself.  These  reasons  are  not  quite  so  satisfactory  as  those 
which  ground  the  importance  of  classic  study  on  the  fact  that 
modern  civilization  is  derivative ;  resting  on  the  Greek  for  its 
aesthetics  and  science ;  resting  on  the  Roman  for  its  legal  and 
political  forms.  A  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  gives  the  modern 
youth  a  "self-estrangement"  which  ends  by  his  becoming  fa- 
miliar with  the  view  of  the  world  held  at  Rome  and  Athens. 
When  he  can  see  the  world  from  the  standpoints  of  those  peoples 
who  were  Competent  by  their  original  genius  to  invent  art  and 


278  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

science  and  jurisprudence,  our  modern  youth  finds  himself  re- 
turned from  out  his  "  self -estrangement "  with  the  capacity  to 
see  and  comprehend  those  important  strands  of  his  civilization 
that  were  before  invisible  to  him  or  seen  only  dimly.  The  study 
of  Latin  and  Greek  is  the  study  of  the  embryology  of  our  civil- 
ization. 

In  this  view  we  are  interested  especially  in  the  history  of  the 
modern  study  of  the  classics.  Trotzendorf  (1490-1556),  who  went 
to  Wittenberg  in  1518  and  taught  with  Melanchthon,  and  was  rec- 
tor of  the  Gymnasium  at  Gorlitz  for  twenty-five  years,  is  one  of 
the  most  important  names.  Sturm  is  another  (see  §  252,  com- 
mentary). The  powerful  effect  of  classic  study  in  giving  the 
youth  possession  of  himself  has  been  noted  for  centuries.  The 
explanation  of  it  has  varied.  In  the  expression  "  humanities  " 
(humaniora,  or  Uterce  humaniores)  is  suggested  the  theory  that 
the  classics  are  especially  adapted  to  humanize  the  youth.  If 
this  means  that  they  give  him  an  insight  into  human  nature  as 
nothing  else  does,  the  expression  is  very  apt.  Human  nature 
has  shown  itself  especially  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  peoples,  ris- 
ing to  wonderful  heights  of  intellect  and  will-power.  But  this 
does  not  state  so  directly  the  present  value  of  those  languages  as 
the  view  above  presented,  namely,  that  they  give-  the  pupil  the 
point  of  view  of  the  original  inventors  of  art,  science,  and  juris- 
prudence, and  hence  their  study  is  to  all  modern  civilized  peo- 
ples (whose  culture  is  derivative)  a  study  of  their  own  spiritual 
embryology,  and  therefore  indispensable  for  direct  self-knowl- 
edge. The  vague  expression  "discipline  of  mind"  has  been 
much  used  to  express  the  valuable  result  of  classic  study,  but  it 
does  not  hint  at  the  genuine  source  of  the  culture  as  the  word 
humanities  does.] 

(5)  The  Philanthropic  Ideal. 

§  259.  The  humanitarian  tendency  reached  its  ex- 
treme in  the  complete  forgetting  of  the  present,  and  the 
neglect  of  its  just  claim.  Man  discovered  at  last  that 
he  was  not  at  home  with  himself,  although  he  had  made 
himself  at  home  in  Rome  and  Athens.  He  spoke  and 
wrote  Latin,  if  not  like  Cicero,  at  least  like  Muretius,  but 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       279 

he  often  found  himself  awkward  in  expressing  his  mean- 
ing in  his  mother-tongue.  He  was  often  very  learned, 
but  he  lacked  judgment.  He  was  filled  with  enthusiasm 
for  the  republicanism  of  Greece  and  Borne,  and  yet  at 
the  same  time  was  himself  exceedingly  servile  to  his  ex- 
cellent and  august  lords.  Against  this  gradual  deadening 
of  active  individuality,  the  result  of  an  abnormal  study 
of  the  classics,  wTe  find  now  reacting  the  education  of 
the  age  of  revolution,  which  we  generally  call  the  philan- 
thropic education.  It  sought  to  make  men  friendly  to* 
the  immediate  course  of  the  world.  It  placed  over 
against  the  learning  of  the  ancient  languages  for  their 
own  sake  the  acquisition  of  the  branches  useful  in  earn- 
ing one's  living — mathematics,  physics,  geography,  his- 
tory, and  the  modern  languages,  calling  these  the  real- 
ity-studies ("  Healien  ").  Nevertheless,  it  retained  chief 
place  in  the  instruction  in  the  Latin  language  because 
the  Romance  languages  have  sprung  from  it,  and  be- 
cause, through  its  long  domination,  the  entire  terminol- 
ogy of  science,  art,  and  law,  is  derived  from  it.  Phi- 
lanthropic education  desired  to  develop  the  social  side 
of  its  pupils  through  a  compendium  of  practical  knowl- 
edge and  personal  accomplishments,  and  to  lead  him 
out  of  the  hermit-like  sedentary  life  of  the  book-pedant 
into  the  fields  and  the  woods.  It  desired  to  imitate  life 
even  in  its  method,  and  to  instruct  entertainingly  in  the 
way  of  play  or  by  conversation.  It  would  add  to  the 
printed  words  and  names  the  objects  themselves,  or  at 
least  their  representation  by  pictures ;  and  in  this  direc- 
tion, in  the  literature  which  it  prepared  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  children,  it  sometimes  strayed  into  childish- 
ness. It  performed  a  great  service  when  it  gave  to  the 


280  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

body  its  due,  and  introduced  simple,  natural  dress,  bath- 
ing, gymnastics,  pedestrian  excursions,  and  thereby  hard- 
ened it  against  the  influences  of  wind  and  weather. 
As  this  system  of  education,  so  friendly  to  children, 
believed  that  it  could  not  soon  enough  begin  to  honor 
them  as  citizens  of  the  world,  it  committed  the  error  of 
presupposing  as  already  finished  in  its  children  much 
that  it  itself  should  have  gradually  developed ;  and  as  it 
wished  to  educate  the  pupil  into  the  general  ideal  of 
humanity  rather  than  into  that  of  a  particular  province 
or  sect,  it  became  indifferent  concerning  the  concrete 
distinctions  of  nationality  and  religion.  It  agreed  with 
certain  philologists  in  placing,  in  an  indirect  manner, 
Socrates  above  Christ,  because  he  had  worked  no  mir- 
acles, and  taught  only  morality.  In  such  a  dead  cos- 
mopolitanism, individuality  disappeared  in  the  indeter- 
minateness  of  a  general  "humanity,"  and  saw  itself 
forced  to  agree  with  the  humanistic  education  in  pro- 
claiming the  truth  of  nature  as  the  educational  ideal, 
with  the  distinction  that,  while  humanism  believed  this 
ideal  realized  in  the  Greeks  and  Eomans,  Philanthro- 
.  pinism  found  itself  compelled  to  presuppose  an  abstract 
natural  man,  and  often  manifested  a  not  unjustifiable 
pleasure  in  recognizing  in  the  Indian  of  North  America, 
or  the  savage  of  Otaheite,  the  genuine  man  of  Nature. 
Philosophy  developed  these  abstract  views  into  the  idea 
of  a  rational  political  state-government,  which  should  in- 
corporate within  its  organism  the  scientific  knowledge 
of  whatever  is  rational,  and  should  adopt  as  reforms  all 
changes  demanded  by  the  growth  of  such  science. 

The  course  which  the  development  of  the  philanthropic  ideal 
has  taken  is  as  follows :  (1)  Rousseau,  in  his  writings,  "  £mile  "  and 


THE  SYSTEM   OF  HUMANITARIAN   EDUCATION.       281 

the  "  Nouvelle  Heloise,"  first  preached  the  evangel  of  natural  educa- 
tion, the  emancipation  from  historic  precedents  and  tradition,  the  ne- 
gation of  existing  culture,  and  the  return  to  the  simplicity  and  inno- 
cence of  Nature.  Although  he  often  himself  testified  in  his  expe- 
rience his  own  proneness  to  evil  in  a  very  discouraging  manner,  he 
fixed  as  an  almost  universally  accepted  axiom  in  French  and  German 
pedagogics  his  principal  maxim,  that  man  is  by  nature  good.  (2) 
The  reformatory  ideas  of  Rousseau  met  with  only  a  very  infrequent 
and  sporadic  introduction  among  the  Romanic  nations,  because 
among  them  education  was  too  dependent  on  the  Church,  and  re- 
tained its  cloister-like  seclusion  in  seminaries,  colleges,  etc.  In  Ger- 
many, on  the  contrary,  they  were  put  into  practice,  and  the  Philan- 
thropina,  established  by  Basedow  in  Dessau,  Brunswick,  and  Schnep- 
fenthal,  made  experiments,  which  nevertheless  very  soon  departed 
somewhat  from  the  extreme  views  of  Basedow  himself,  and  had  many 
excellent  results.  (3)  Humanity  exists  in  concrete*  only  in  the  form  of 
nations.  The  French  nation,  in  their  first  Revolution,  tried  the  ex- 
periment of  emancipating  themselves  from  historic  tradition,  of  lev- 
eling all  distinctions  of  culture,  of  enthroning  a  despotism  of  reason, 
and  of  organizing  itself  as  humanity,  pure  and  simple.  The  event 
showed  the  impossibility  of  such  an  undertaking.  The  national 
energy,  the  historical  impulse,  the  love  of  art  and  science,  came  forth 
from  the  midst  of  the  revolutionary  movement  which  was  directed 
to  their  destruction  more  vigorously  than  ever.  The  grande  nation, 
their  grande  armee,  and  gloire — that  is  to  say,  glory  for  France — 
supplanted  all  the  humanitarian  phrases.  In  Germany  the  philan- 
thropic circle  of  education  was  limited  at  first  to  the  higher  ranks. 
There  was  no  exclusiveness  in  the  PhilantTiropina,  for  there  nobles 
and  citizens,  Catholics  and  Protestants,  Russians  and  Swiss,  were 
mingled ;  but  these  were  always  the  children  of  wealthy  families,  and 
to  these  the  plan  of  education  was  adapted. 

Then  appeared  Pestalozzi  and  directed  education  also  to  the 
lower  classes  of  society — those  which  are  called,  not  without  some- 
thing approaching  to  a  derogatory  meaning,  the  people.  From  this 
time  dates  popular  education,  the  effort  for  the  intellectual  and 
moral  elevation  of  the  hitherto  neglected  atomistic  human  being  of 
the  non-property-holding  multitude.  There  shall  in  future  be  no 
dirty,  hungry,  ignorant,  awkward,  thankless,  and  will-less  mass,  de- 
voted alone  to  an  animal  existence.  We  can  never  rid  ourselves  of 
the  lower  classes  by  having  the  wealthy  give  something,  or  even  their 


282  PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

all,  to  the  poor ;  but  we  can  rid  ourselves  of  them  in  the  sense  that 
the  possibility  of  culture  and  independent  self-support  shall  be  open 
to  every  one,  because  he  is  a  human  being  and  a  citizen  of  the  com- 
monwealth. Ignorance  and  rudeness,  and  the  vice  which  springs 
from  them,  and  the  malevolent  frame  of  mind  that  hates  civil  laws 
and  ordinances  and  generates  crime — these  shall  disappear.  Educa- 
tion shall  train  man  to  self-conscious  obedience  to  law,  as  well  as  to 
kindly  feeling  toward  the  erring,  and  to  an  effort  not  merely  for  their 
punishment,  but  for  their  improvement.  But  the  more  Pestalozzi 
endeavored  to  realize  his  ideal  of  human  dignity,  the  more  he  com- 
prehended that  the  isolated  power  of  a  private  man  could  not  attain 
it,  but  that  the  nation  itself  must  make  the  education  of  its  people 
its  first  business.  Fichte  by  his  lectures  first  made  the  German  na- 
tion fully  accept  these  thoughts,  and  Prussia  was  the  first  state 
which,  by  her  public  schools  and  her  military  preparation  for  de- 
fense, led  the  way  with  clear  consciousness  in  providing  for  national 
education ;  while  among  the  Romanic  nations,  in  spite  of  their  more 
elaborate  political  formalism,  it  still  depends  partly  upon  the  Church 
and  partly  upon  the  accident  of  private  enterprise.  Pestalozzi  also 
laid  a  foundation  for  a  national  pedagogical  literature  by  his  story  of 
"Leonard  and  Gertrude."  This  book  appeared  in  1784,  the  same 
year  in  which  Schiller's  "  Robbers "  and  Kant's  "  Critique  of  Pure 
Reason  "  announced  a  new  phase  in  the  drama  and  in  philosophy. 

The  incarnation  of  God,  which  was,  up  to  the  time  of  the  Ref- 
ormation, an  esoteric  mystery  of  the  Church,  has  since  then  become 
continually  more  and  more  an  exoteric  problem  of  the  state. 

[In  the  schools  of  Trotzendorf  and  Sturm  the  youth  were 
trained  as  though  they  were  to  live  in  Rome  or  Athens.  A 
wise  insight  into  the  principle  of  self-estrangement  takes  note  of 
the  importance  of  so  conducting  the  return  from  it  that  the  pu- 
pil does  not  get  set  in  foreign  ways  so  firmly  that  he  never  re- 
turns to  his  present  environment.  The  danger  of  humanism  is 
that  it  makes  the  means  into  the  end,  and  does  not  provide  for 
a  return  out  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  world  to  the  modern  world. 
The  moderns,  represented  by  (a)  the  natural  sciences,  (b)  the  mod- 
ern languages  and  literatures,  and  (c)  modern  history,  constitute 
the  return  phase  of  this  course  of  study.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
preferring  one  for  the  other :  they  are  parts  of  one  whole.  Any 
school  education,  no  matter  how  meager,  should  have  discipline 


THE   SYSTEM   OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       283 

studies  and  information  studies — or  self-estrangement  studies 
and  familiar-reality  studies.  The  latter  studies— the  "mod- 
erns "  or  the  "  information  "  studies  are  advocated  by  the  "  phil- 
anthropic "  or  "  philanthropinist "  educators  under  the  name  of 
"  real "  studies.  The  outcome  of  these  two  extremes,  separately 
carried  out,  results,  curiously  enough,  in  setting  up  an  ideal  hu- 
man nature.  Humanism  sets  up  the  Greek  and  Roman  human- 
ity, while  Philanthropinism,  or  realism,  sets  up  an  imaginary 
"natural  man"  unspoiled  by  artificial  culture:  (1)  Rousseau 
preached  the  evangel  of  "  return  to  Nature."  It  is  amazing  to 
see  how  universally  his  maxim  has  been  adopted,  and  how 
thoughtlessly  it  is  used.  There  is  a  confusion  here  between 
"  nature  "  as  it  exists  in  real  forms  in  time  and  space,  and  "  na- 
ture "  as  it  exists  as  an  ideal,  which  is  not  yet  realized.  Human 
nature  is  not  a  real  form  in  time  and  space,  like  a  rock  or  tree, 
but  is  brought  forth  by  self -activity,  self-development.  More- 
over, human  nature  is  a  participation  on  the  part  of  one  indi- 
vidual in  the  results  that  his  race  have  brought  forth.  Educa- 
tion seeks  to  render  the  individual  able  to  participate  in  the 
experience  of  all  men — giving  him  the  result  of  their  percep- 
tion and  reflection,  of  their  deeds  and  the  consequences  for  weal 
or  woe  that  flowed  from  them.  Civilization  is  not  an  artificial 
structure  in  the  sense  that  Rousseau  dreamed  it  to  be,  but  it  is 
the  gigantic  revelation,  of  what  is  in  human  nature  as  a  possi- 
bility, worked  out  in  extenso  in  time  and  space. 

(2)  Rousseau's  educational  ideas  were  suppressed  among  the 
Romanic  nations,  but  were  put  into  practice  in  Germany,  espe- 
cially by  Basedow  in  his  "  Philanthropinum."    In  France  they 
were  not  acted  upon  in  education,  but  they  produced  a  far  more 
startling  effect  in  exploding  the  French  Revolution. 

(3)  The  French  tried  to  emancipate  themselves  from  historic 
tradition  and  to  live  "  according  to  Nature,"  but  with  most  dis- 
mal results.    It  is  likely  to  prove  useful  for  many  centuries  as 
an  educational  spectacle.    The  nation  discovered  its  "  state  of 
nature  "  to  be  a  "  self -estrangement,"  from  which  it  slowly  re- 
turned through  the  process  of  Bonapartism  to  Bourbonism; 
again  to  make  new  departures  and  new  returns  before  finally 
reaching  the  true  state  of  human  nature. 

Perhaps  the  happiest  result  of  Rousseau  is  his  effect  on  Pesta- 
lozzi.    The  education  of  the  people  as  people — popular  educa- 
27 


284:  PARTICULAR   SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

tion  that  reaches  all  classes — owes  to  Pestalozzi  the  greatest 
debt,  and  through  him  to  Rousseau  still  a  large  obligation.  We 
shall  in  the  future  rid  ourselves  of  the  "  dirty,  hungry,  ignorant, 
thriftless,  thankless,  and  will-less  masses  devoted  to  a  merely  ani- 
mal existence."  They  will  all  be  developed  in  youth  in  the 
school  and  made  self-active  and  intelligent,  and  by  this  means 
become  self -helpful.  Pestalozzi  made  the  problem  clear  to  all 
Europe.  Fichte  persuaded  Prussia  to  adopt  public  education  as 
a  state  policy.  Since  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  public  schools 
for  the  education  of  the  people  have  spread  very  widely  through- 
out Europe. 

Since  Pestalozzi,  and  with  him  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  edu- 
cational reformers,  has  appeared  Friedrich  Froebel.  His  mission 
was  directed  to  providing  a  proper  form  of  school  education  for 
the  younger  children  not  qualified  to  enter  the  primary  school. 
The  school  has  begun  hitherto  with  teaching  the  "  convention- 
alities of  intelligence,"  reading,  writing,  etc.  Froebel  would 
have  the  younger  children  receive  a  symbolic  education,  plays, 
games,  and  occupations  which  symbolize  the  primitive  arts  of 
man.  Play  should  be  the  activity  utilized  for  the  first  education 
of  the  child.] 

3.  Free  Education. 

§  260.  The  ideal  of  culture  of  the  humanist  and 
the  philanthropic  education  was  taken  up  into  the  con- 
ception of  an  education  which  recognizes  the  family, 
social  station,  the  nation,  and  religion  .as  positive  ele- 
ments of  the  practical  spirit,  but  which  will  require  that 
each  of  these  shall  be  defined  from  within  through  the 
idea  of  humanity,  and  brought  into  reciprocal  relation 
with  all  the  others.  Physical  development  shall  become 
the  object  of  a  national  system  of  gymnastics,  adopted 
universally  by  the  people,  and  including  the  drill  in  the 
use  of  arms.  Instruction,  in  respect  to  a  general  en- 
cyclopedic culture,  ought  to  be  the  same  for  all,  and 
parallel  to  this  should  run  a  system  of  special  schools  to 


THE  SYSTEM  OF  HUMANITARIAN  EDUCATION.       285 

prepare  for  the  special  vocations  of  life.  The  method 
of  instruction  ought  to  be  the  simple  exposition  of  the 
special  idea  of  each  branch,  and  this  should  not  be  sacri- 
ficed any  longer  to  the  formal  breadth  of  a  literary  treat- 
ment of  many  things  which  may  find  outside  the  school 
its  opportunity,  but  within  it  has  no  meaning  except  as 
the  history  of  a  science  or  an  art.  Moral  culture  must 
be  combined  with  family  affection  and  the  knowledge 
of  the  laws  of  the  commonwealth,  so  that  the  collision 
between  individual  morality  and  objective  legality  may 
ever  more  and  more  disappear.  Education  ought,  with- 
out violently  estranging  the  individual  from  the  inter- 
nality  of  the  family,  to  accustom  him  gradually  to  the 
life  of  the  people  as  it  actually  exists,  because  a  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature  [as  one  obtains  it  by  associating 
with  all  classes  in  public  schools]  furnishes  the  standpoint 
whence  to  obtain  a  just  survey  of  the  whole,  and  is  the 
only  thing  which  can  prevent  the  cynicism  of  private 
life,  the  one-sidedness  of  knowledge  and  perverseness 
of  will,  and  the  spirit  of  caste,  which  has  so  extensively 
prevailed.  The  individual  ought  to  be  educated  into  a 
self -consciousness  of  the  essential  equality  and  freedom 
of  all  men,  so  that  he  shall  recognize  and  acknowledge 
himself  in  each  one  and  in  all.  But  this  essential  and 
solid  unity  of  all  men  must  not  degenerate  into  the  in- 
sipidity of  a  humanity  without  distinctions,  but  instead 
it  must  realize  the  form  of  a  concrete  individuality  and 
nationality,  and  transfigure  the  idiosyncrasy  of  its  nation 
into  a  broad  humanity.  The  unrestricted  striving  after 
beauty,  truth,  and  freedom,  presently  and  of  its  own 
accord,  and  not  merely  through  ecclesiastical  interme- 
diation, will  lead  to  religion. 


286      PARTICULAR  SYSTEMS  OF  EDUCATION. 

The  education  of  the  state  must  furnish  a  preparation 
for  the  unfettered  activity  of  self-conscious  humanity. 

[In  the  "  free  education  "  of  the  future,  whose  object  shall  be 
the  emancipation  of  each  individual,  there  must  be  schools  that 
give  a  common  general  education,  supplemented  by  special 
schools  for  the  special  vocations  of  life.  The  education  by  the 
newspaper  is  one  of  the  most  noteworthy  phenomena  of  our 
time.  Where  all  the  people  read  and  where  the  vast  majority  of 
the  people  live  in  cities  or  near  railroad-stations  in  the  country, 
the  daily  newspaper  brings  to  each  person  at  his  breakfast  a  sur- 
vey of  the  entire  world.  Compared  with  the  village  gossip  in 
olden  times,  this  general  survey  is  a  miraculous  instrument  of 
education  in  the  humanizing  direction.  While  it  educates  it 
governs,  and  few  nations  now  exist  that  do  not  consider  very 
carefully  how  their  conduct  will  appear,  when  it,  by  the  tele- 
graph and  the  daily  newspaper,  is  placed  under  the  inspection  of 
the  entire  world.  Modern  literature,  which  follows  the  daily 
newspaper  into  every  family,  contributes  an  increasingly  power- 
ful element  in  education.  The  prose  novel  makes  every  one  fa- 
miliar with  the  peculiarities  of  foreign  people,  and  a  genuine 
human  interest  in  the  details  of  life,  as  they  exist  among  all 
nations  has  arisen.  This  is  producing  universal  toleration  for 
differences  of  custom  and  views  of  the  world,  and  on  the  other 
hand  rapidly  drawing  together  all  peoples  who  have  become 
reading  peoples. 

These  instrumentalities,  the  printing-press,  railroads,  tele- 
graphs, and  postal  systems,  which  facilitate  travel  and  per- 
sonal acquaintance,  and  still  more  the  intercommunication  and 
acquaintance  by  the  printed  page,  are  hastening  forward  that 
stage  of  public  opinion  which  demands  in  the  name  of  Christian 
civilization  that  each  individual  shall  share  in  the  heritage  of 
realized  wisdom  of  the  entire  race.] 


THE    END. 


I 


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